Existing law sets forth the Nevada Certified Court Reporters' and Licensed Court Reporting Firms' Law, which provides for the certification and regulation of certified court reporters and the licensure and regulation of court reporting firms by the Certified Court Reporters' Board of Nevada. (Chapter 656 of NRS) This bill sets forth circumstances under which a certified court reporter and court reporting firm are authorized or prohibited from providing a transcript of a proceeding to a person who is not a party to the proceeding. Under this bill, a person who is not a party to a proceeding is authorized to request a copy of a transcript of that proceeding from the certified court reporter or court reporting firm with possession of the transcript. Upon receipt of such a request, the certified court reporter or court reporting firm is required to: (1) provide certain notice to each party in the proceeding concerning the third-party requester; (2) if the transcript is of the testimony of an expert witness and the third-party requester is involved in litigation in which the expert witness is also involved, provide a copy of the transcript to the third-party requester unless a court order prohibiting the provision of the transcript is served within 60 days after the notice is provided; and (3) if the transcript is any other transcript, including, without limitation, the transcript of the testimony of an expert witness who is not involved in litigation with the third-party requester, provide a copy of the transcript to the third-party requester unless a party objects, in which case the certified court reporter or court reporting firm is prohibited from providing the transcript unless a court order authorizing the provision of the transcript is served. This bill requires the court to consider certain factors before issuing any of those orders. In all cases, this bill requires the third-party requester to pay a certified court reporter or court reporting firm a reasonable fee prescribed by the reporter or firm to obtain the transcript.
Finally, this bill additionally requires the Board to adopt regulations which address the redaction of confidential information from any transcript before a copy is provided to a third-party requester.