Judges: JAMES E. DOYLE, Attorney General
Filed Date: 2/24/1993
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/6/2016
Mr. Kenneth Bukowski Corporation Counsel Brown County Courthouse Post Office Box 23600 Green Bay, Wisconsin 54305-3600
Dear Mr. Bukowski:
You indicate that your county has hired a number of employes with the job title of "court reporter" at a salary of $11.94 per hour who are assigned to do transcription and related work for your county's court commissioners. You ask two basic questions concerning the establishment of compensation and work rules for such county employes. Your questions may be restated as follows:
(1) Must a county permit its own employes who perform court reporting functions similar to those performed by court reporters employed by the state to retain all statutory fees which can be retained by state-employed court reporters even if such statutory fees are paid by the county?
In my opinion, the answer is yes. The salaries of such county employes could, however, be structured to account for the payment of those fees. *Page 8
(2) May a county prohibit its employes who perform such court reporting functions from typing transcripts during normal county working hours if they receive fees in addition to their normal county salary for furnishing such transcripts?
In my opinion, the answer is yes, if such a prohibition does not interfere with the ability of those employes to comply with the requirements of statutory provisions or supreme court rules for the preparation of transcripts within specified time periods and does not otherwise interfere with the orderly operation of the judicial system.
Section
Except as provided in
SCR 71.04 (4), every reporter, upon the request of any party to an action or proceeding, shall make a typewritten transcript, and as many copies thereof as the party requests, of the testimony and proceedings reported by him or her in the action or proceeding, or any part thereof specified by the party, the transcript and each copy thereof to be duly certified by him or her to be a correct transcript thereof. For the transcripts the reporter is entitled to receive the fees prescribed in s.814.69 (2).
Section
Fees of court reporters; transcripts. A court reporter shall collect the following fees:
(1) For a transcript under
SCR 71.04 , a fee at the rate of $1.50 per 25-line page for the original and 50 cents per 25-line page for the duplicate. Except as provided in s.967.06 , the fee shall be paid by the county treasurer upon the certificate of the clerk of court.(2) For a transcript under s.
757.57 (5), a fee from the party requesting the transcript at the rate of $1.75 per 25-line page for the original and 60 cents per 25-line page for each copy. If the request is by the state or any political *Page 9 subdivision thereof, the fees of the reporter shall be at the rates provided in sub. (1).
Section
Determination of indigency; appointment of counsel; preparation of record. . . . In any case in which the state public defender provides representation to an indigent person, the public defender may request that the applicable court reporter or clerk of courts prepare and transmit any transcript or court record. The request shall be complied with. The county treasurer shall compensate the court reporter or clerk of courts for the preparation and transmittal of the documents, upon the written statement of the state public defender that the documents were required in order to provide representation to the indigent person.
Section
Testimony at preliminary examination. The testimony at the preliminary examination shall be transcribed if requested by the district attorney or the defendant or ordered by the judge to whom the trial is assigned. The reporter shall file such transcript with the clerk within 10 days after it is requested. When a transcript is requested, the county shall pay the cost of the original and any additional copies shall be paid for at the statutory rate by the party requesting such copies.
Section 753.175 provides:
Fees; where paid. Any fee received by a judge of a court as a court commissioner shall be paid into the county treasury except that any amount payable under s.
814.68 (1) to a reporter shall be paid to such reporter.
Section
Employes. The supreme court may authorize the employes it considers necessary for the execution of the functions of the supreme court and the court of appeals and the court reporting functions of the circuit courts and may *Page 10 designate titles, prescribe duties and fix compensation. Compensation and benefits of employes should be consistent with that paid to state employes in the classified service for services involving similar work and responsibility. Each justice and court of appeals judge may appoint and prescribe the duties of a secretary and a law clerk to assist the justice or judge in the performance of his or her duties. Each circuit judge may appoint a court reporter to serve in the court or branch of court to which he or she was elected or appointed if the reporter is certified as qualified by the director of state courts. A person appointed by the supreme court or a justice or court of appeals judge or a circuit judge serves at the pleasure of the court or the justice or judge.
Transcripts. (1) Reporters' notes or other verbatim record need not be transcribed unless required by this rule, any statute or court order.
(2) The original transcript of any proceeding, whether complete or partial, shall be filed with the court. The cost of such transcript shall be borne as provided in this rule and in section
814.69 of the statutes.
. . . .
(4) Reporters' notes or other verbatim record of proceedings under chapters 48 and 767 of the statutes shall be transcribed only upon order of the court.
(5)(a) When a defendant is sentenced to a state prison, the original transcript of any portion of the proceedings relating to the prisoner's sentencing shall be filed with the court and a certified duplicate shall be filed at the institution within 120 days from the date that the sentence is imposed.
(b) The original transcript of all other testimony and proceedings upon order of the court shall be filed with the court and a certified duplicate shall be delivered to the *Page 11 prisoner within 120 days of the prisoner's request made to the clerk of court.
(c) The original transcript of all other testimony and proceedings upon order of the court shall be filed with the court and a certified duplicate shall be delivered to the institution within 120 days of its request made to the clerk of court.
. . . .
(6) Except as provided in sub. (4), every reporter, upon the request of any party to an action or proceeding, shall make a typewritten transcript, and as many duplicates thereof as the party requests, of the testimony and proceedings reported by him or her in the action or proceeding, or any part thereof specified by the party, the transcript and duplicate thereof to be duly certified by him or her to be a correct transcript thereof.
. . . .
(9) A reporter may make a special charge, pursuant to arrangement with the party requesting same, for furnishing typewritten transcripts of testimony and proceedings from day to day during the progress of any trial or proceeding.
. . . .
(11) For all transcripts furnished under this rule, the court reporter shall be entitled to receive fees as prescribed in section814.69 of the statutes.
Section
Among other things, in
All of these statutes either incorporate or ultimately rely upon section
Non-technical terms in a statute should be construed according to their ordinary and accepted meaning. Sec.
I have considered the possibility that the term "court reporter" should be accorded a more technical meaning so that it would be limited to state employes designated or appointed under section
A statute should be construed so as to avoid unreasonable and absurd results. Estate of Evans,
Since your employes are "court reporters" who may collect statutory fees, your first question also requires me to determine whether the county may require a salaried court reporter to remit all statutory fees for the preparation of transcripts to the county. I am aware that both elected and appointed county officials ordinarily may not retain statutory fees as part of their own compensation unless specifically authorized to do so by the county board. See sec.
Unlike the state, however, a county is not obligated by statute to place its court reporters in a specific pay range resulting in a statutorily-required salary. See OAG 19-79 (February 22, 1979) (unpublished). There are various federal and state statutes assuring fair labor standards which may affect how a court reporter can be compensated. Although the issue is not entirely free from doubt, assuming that there is compliance with such statutes, I see no reason why a county could not establish a salary structure which takes into account fees paid to court reporters, so long as court reporters are permitted to retain those fees. In such circumstances, the fact that county income or salary is "measured by" or with reference to personal income is not equivalent to a requirement that personal income be paid to the county. Cf. Mobil Oil Corp. v. Ley,
You also ask whether the county pays transcription fees required of it under a statute by providing a salary to the court reporter. Under section
Your final question is whether the county can prohibit its salaried court reporters from typing transcripts during normal county working hours if they receive personal compensation for such transcripts. Under section
I am aware that prior attorney general opinions suggest that a county cannot impose such limitations. See 31 Op. Att'y Gen. at 222; 6 Op. Att'y Gen. 248, 249-50 (1917); 3 Op. Att'y Gen. 668, 670 (1914); 1910 Op. Att'y Gen. 597, 598 (1909). But such opinions are based on statutory language granting county judges the authority to prescribe the duties of court reporters. See,e.g., 31 Op. Att'y Gen. at 222. No such statutory language appears to be applicable to the situation you describe.
Courts do, however, possess certain inherent powers to assure their own efficient operation and such powers do extend to court reporters. See State v. Johnston,
The Legislature never has directly addressed the problems created by the fact that court reporters receive both personal and public compensation for the services they perform. Until it does so, it is my conclusion that a county must permit its own employes who perform court reporting functions indistinguishable from those performed by court reporters employed by the state to retain all statutory fees which can be retained by state-employed court reporters, including those fees which are the statutory obligation of the county. The salaries of such employes could be structured to account for the payment of those fees. A county may prohibit its employes who perform court reporting functions from typing transcripts during normal county working hours if they receive fees in addition to their normal county salary for furnishing such transcripts, but such a prohibition may not interfere with the ability of those employes to comply with the requirements of statutory provisions or supreme court rules for the preparation of transcripts within specified time periods or with the orderly operation of the judicial system.
Sincerely,
James E. Doyle Attorney General*Page 17