Founder
What happens when there is no court reporter present to memorialize the trial court proceedings? The short answer is, your appeal is dead on arrival. Appellate courts presume that trial court judgments are correct, and an appellant must demonstrate an error based on the record. Without a transcript, it may be impossible to establish that a judge made a mistake.
Thus, for low-income litigants who cannot afford to hire a private reporter, the absence of an appellate
record can doom an appeal before it starts. Along with stymying a litigant’s individual case, it also exacerbates the income inequality that continues to bedevil the justice system. But a recent ruling by the California Supreme Court could alleviate these concerns. In an August 2026 opinion, the Court ordered California state trial courts to provide indigent litigants with access to an official verbatim record of their proceedings upon request, including through electronic recording. “Wealthier litigants can be assured that an official verbatim record of their proceedings will be available, whereas indigent litigants cannot,” the Court noted. “The continued failure of the superior courts to provide indigent litigants with a means of obtaining an official verbatim record deprives them of ‘meaningful access to the judicial process.”
The ruling in the case, Family Violence Appellate Project et al. v. Superior Courts of California, came
in a petition the plaintiffs filed directly with the high court against four California trial courts, seeking a statewide solution to a problem that precluded legal aid groups from pursuing appeals on behalf of domestic violence survivors.
Of course, the Supreme Court decision will not resolve California’s court reporter shortage. But it establishes that a litigant who cannot afford a private reporter must have meaningful access to an official record upon request. This is one small, but significant step in helping to level the legal playing field.