"No transcript, no appeal"

Today's LA Times has No transcript, no appeal: California courts face ‘crisis’ over lack of records

• California’s highest-ranking court officials are warning of a growing “constitutional crisis” playing out across the state’s judicial system, as hundreds of thousands of hearings are held without a precise record of what occurred.
• The problem is a shortage of public court reporters, the stenographers who transcribe proceedings, and state law that bars electronic recording devices from being used in certain types of hearings — even when a reporter isn’t available.
• Last year, 332,000 hearings occurred without a court reporter or an electronic recording device in Los Angeles County Superior Court alone. California Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero warned in a speech last month that, statewide, about 133,000 such hearings occurred in a single three-month period.