April 15, 2024

"Unlike nearly every other state, New York does not allow cameras in the courtroom and also prohibits audio recordings..."

"... of witness testimony and other proceedings.... In an era when even the U.S. Supreme Court streams live audio of oral arguments, New York is way behind the times; the official court rules for coverage of People v. Trump allows for about 60 journalists (including two sketch artists) to witness the proceedings with 'no video, no photographs, no audio recording.'... In New Yor​​k — again, in a departure from the federal system and every other state — official rules state that transcripts of what gets said in court must be purchased from the court stenographers who have the job of recording, on a specialized keyboard, every word, action, and ruling in criminal cases." 

From "Free the Trump Trial Transcripts/The New York court system’s maddening lack of transparency is about to be a national embarrassment" (New York Magazine).

"These court personnel, whose base salaries top $100,000 in many cases, can charge as much as $4.75 a page for transcripts, with the record of a single day of trial easily totaling several hundred dollars — money that goes into the pocket of the employee, not the court. And everyone who needs to see the transcripts — prosecutors, defense attorneys, members of the media, and even the court itself — has to buy transcripts from these workers, even though they are on the public payroll and get health benefits and pensions at public expense. And media organizations are forbidden from jointly purchasing and then publishing the transcripts; each outlet must buy its own copy, and publication is prohibited. This system should have been scrapped long ago...."

39 comments:

cf said...

hmmm. it must serve some purpose or some one. hmmm.

Jake said...

Waaaah. Fuck off. Pay for the transcripts.

Big Mike said...

We York has been a national embarrassment for quite some time now. Why change?

Readering said...

Sounds like an area that could be improved by AI. Crisis in CA coming from court reporter shortahe.

Patrick said...

Court reporters must have a solid lobby.

Kevin said...

New York is way behind the times;

Again with the Progressive meme that if I don't agree with your choices, it's because you're "behind the times".

Aggie said...

"....is about to be a national embarrassment..."

I think we passed that mile marker in the NY court system a few years ago. But - nice to see their concessions are doing well.

God of the Sea People said...

Can't let people see the illegitimate show trial for what it is.

Wince said...

It's as if public employees have gamed the NY court system for personal profit and political gain.

From the judge, to the DA to the court reporters?

Achilles said...

If I was a corrupt state I would want my courts to be Star Chambers.

They really do not want everyone to see the kangaroos in the wild.

Achilles said...

"These court personnel, whose base salaries top $100,000 in many cases, can charge as much as $4.75 a page for transcripts, with the record of a single day of trial easily totaling several hundred dollars — money that goes into the pocket of the employee, not the court. And everyone who needs to see the transcripts — prosecutors, defense attorneys, members of the media, and even the court itself — has to buy transcripts from these workers, even though they are on the public payroll and get health benefits and pensions at public expense. And media organizations are forbidden from jointly purchasing and then publishing the transcripts; each outlet must buy its own copy, and publication is prohibited. This system should have been scrapped long ago...."


New York is just corrupt.

It is what Democrats do.

Michael said...


$4.75/page for a document that's digitized?

The government requires all sorts of documentation for my business. At that rate they owe me about $1500 for the past year.

MadTownGuy said...

Even if news outlets get the transcripts, they can be expected to publish the parts that support the current narrative. Transparency? Fuggedaboudit.

Old and slow said...

"Lack of transparency" my ass. What use is a show trial if you aren't able to show it? The funny part is that Trump would also probably like to have it shown. He's not exactly camera shy.

RCOCEAN II said...

Huh? Incredible. But only now does the NY Times and the MSM notice. NY state and City have always been the Kings of graft and corruption. The attitude is we'll let you rip everyone off, if you let us do it.

I once asked a New Yorker living in our red state "when did you move?". He said "when i got smart". Because in New York, if you're not one of the grifters, you're one of the marks.

hombre said...

Based on what we've seen of NY "justice," the lack of transparency is understandable.

R C Belaire said...

Trump needs to bring his own stenographer.

Whiskeybum said...

Why not have a journalist who is also a trained stenographer attend the trial with the assignment of writing down everything said during the trial? They could either provide it to the public through their own publication, or sell it to other media for an under-cutting price like $3 per page.

BillieBob Thorton said...

Do the dopey democrats know that Trump gets hours of free air time out of these persecutions.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Whole damn operation sounds like clip joint to me.

Kate said...

My dad was a court reporter, and my first job was typing for him. In those days (the 70s) he dictated into a recorder from his court notes that had been transcribed live on his shorthand machine. I listened to the dictation and typed out what he said (including medical terms he spelled out). Mistakes had to be erased and whited out on triplicate copies.

I'm guessing that the NY pay scale is based on those days when producing a transcript was incredibly laborious. Nowadays the software does most of the work.

Lawlizard said...

We stopped doing this in CT and the quality of our transcripts went down. Court reporters pride themselves on being perfect, including checking names and case references. Court monitors aren’t much better than an AI talk to text.

Guimo said...

Maryland doesn’t allow cameras in the courtroom or live-streaming of testimony.

RigelDog said...

When I began my career as a prosecutor in Pennsylvania, the same system of paying court reporters per page was in place. I didn't realize it at first, because only privately-hired defense attorneys had to pay for transcripts and nobody told me about this arrangement. One day a sleazy defense attorney asked me if he could take a look at my transcript of the preliminary hearing and I let him read it. The court reporter in the room at that time, who wasn't even the court reporter who did the preliminary hearing, saw that and she went ballistic. She hated on me every time we were in court together, forever, even though I explained that I didn't know and had apologized.

JK Brown said...

Chicago in August is going to be lit. We have all this and all the 70-somethings nostalgic for Chicago of '68.

Of course, the idiot Republicans chose Milwaukee for their convention, so it may burn in July like it did in 2020. It's not like there is a history of Milwaukee standing up to rioters supporting Leftist causes.

Good times

Popcorn sales will boom in the rest of the country.

traditionalguy said...

Working backwards from the certainty that this pretended charge will never survive Appeal, we see that the timing of the trial has a 100% political purpose with the added benefit of burning up Trump’s money on lawyers fees.

FTR: non disclosure agreements freely entered into for the money paid are the heart of settling civil cases. (One more reason NYC’s Justice system is now gone and replaced by lawlessness). Pretending that these agreements are criminal is total nonsense.

Temujin said...

New York is why Federalism works. Not everybody wants to live like that.

Banzel said...

Iowa's court reporters also own their transcriptive work product.

The court pays them to make an accurate record. No one ever looks at the vast majority of them.

So if you want the benefit of the considerable extra work of tranacribing that record, you pay for it.

Banzel said...

Iowa's court reporters also own their transcriptive work product.

The court pays them to make an accurate record. No one ever looks at the vast majority of them.

So if you want the benefit of the considerable extra work of tranacribing that record, you pay for it.

Deep State Reformer said...

Typical of New York State. NY courts feature outdated technology, one-party judicial ideology, are heavy on "process" but quite weak on justice. Bottom line: Stay the f*** out of there if you can.

rhhardin said...

Performers ought to get royalties in that case.

rhhardin said...

One benefit of no recordings is no deep fakes.

FullMoon said...

Well, if it is against the rules to record audio, there will definitely be no clandestine recording of audio

Joe Smith said...

The commies love this.

The low-IQ democrats will now get their spin and talking points from MSNBC and their DEI hires...

boatbuilder said...

In "Bonfire of the Vanities," either Tom Wolfe or one of his characters (the protagonist's defense attorney?) notes that the court reporters are the snappiest dressers in the criminal courts, because they make the most money.

Robert Cook said...

"In 'Bonfire of the Vanities,' either Tom Wolfe or one of his characters (the protagonist's defense attorney?) notes that the court reporters are the snappiest dressers in the criminal courts, because they make the most money."

Ahem. Wolfe was exercising creative embellishment. I sat on quite a few juries in NYC courtrooms in the 40 years I lived there, and the attire of the court reporters was never noticeably "snappy" or expensive. It looked like the typical work attire one would expect in any government office building. I don't think I ever saw a male court reporter, though they may exist. The court reporters I recall were all women.

Robert Cook said...

"I once asked a New Yorker living in our red state "when did you move?". He said "when i got smart". Because in New York, if you're not one of the grifters, you're one of the marks."

Everyone has their own notion of "the good life." If he was born and bred in NYC, he just may have wanted to experience a different kind of environment, (as was the case with my wife.) I loved every moment I lived in NYC, and I still miss it.

Narayanan said...

how does NYC court accommodate his secret service detail earworm requirement

Narayanan said...

Blogger RigelDog said...
She hated on me every time we were in court together, forever, even though I explained that I didn't know and had apologized.
=================
do you still use argument like ignorance of law etc?