PMWJ H.B. 697 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS JUDICIAL AFFAIRS H.B. 697 By: Dutton 4-2-97 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Court reporters are certified by the Texas Supreme Court, designated "officers of the court," and are subject to standards of conduct established to ensure neutrality and equal fairness to all parties to any litigation. In recent years, out-of-state interests have solicited court reporters and a number of court reporting firms to offer them services on an exclusive basis. Many court reporting firms are owned by non-court reporters and as such are not subject to the standards of conduct established for the profession. Also, the specific provisions established by the Supreme Court do not detail what can and cannot be done by contract between court reporters and outside interests and other services. PURPOSE To set a standard upon which contracts between court reporters and reporting firms may be entered so as to ensure accurate, professional and timely record-making and recordkeeping and to ensure neutrality to all parties. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1 amends Tex. Gov't Code ' 52.029(a), which details the grounds for which a court reporter may be reprimanded or suffer a license suspension or revocation. New language clarifies the meaning of "unprofessional conduct" contained in Subparagraph (9). A new Subparagraph (10) is added to allow a court reporter's license to be suspended or revoked or for the court reporter to be reprimanded for entering into a prohibited contract described by new Section 52.034 (see Section 2 of this bill). Current Subparagraph (10) is renumbered as Subparagraph (11). SECTION 2 adds a new Section 52.034, "Prohibited Contracts," to the Government Code. New Subsec. (a) provides that a court reporter may not enter in an agreement that: (1) undermines the impartiality of the court reporter; (2) prohibits attorneys from selecting court reporters on a case-by-case basis; (3) requires the relinquishment of the original transcript or statement of facts before it is certified and has been delivered to the custodial attorney; (4) requires court reporters to provide any service not provided to all parties to an action; or (5) gives or appears to give an exclusive or partially exclusive advantage to any party. New Subsec. (b) excludes from this act contracts between court reporting services for a court, agency or instrumentality of the State of Texas or U.S. Government. SECTION 3. Effective date. SECTION 4. Application of the act. SECTION 5. Emergency clause.