United States District Court, Central District of California
Attorney Assistance

Subject: Section:Contact: Last Updated:
Criminal Justice Act Information Transcript Procedures for Direct Appeals Randall W. Schnack08/11/2009

Effective immediately, the following procedures will apply to all CJA vouchers processed in the Central District of California (CDC) for direct appeal transcripts ordered in CDC criminal cases.

  1. Appointed counsel is to prepared the CJA 24 (Authorization and Voucher for Payment of Transcript) according to its instructions.

  2. Direct Appeal is to be inserted in item 12 of the CJA 24.

  3. If no request is made for the special authorizations listed in item 14 of the CJA 24 (i.e. voir dire, opening statements, argument or jury instructions), the voucher is to be forwarded by appointed counsel directly to the appropriate court reporter for preparation of the transcripts. If special authorizations are requested, appointed counsel shall forward the CJA 24 along with a showing of cause to the CJA Supervising Attorney. The CJA Supervising Attorney will approve or disapprove the request and return the CJA 24 to appointed counsel. Appointed counsel then must forward the CJA 24 to the appropriate court reporter for preparation of the transcripts.

  4. Upon receipt of the prepared CJA 24, the court reporter shall date stamp the CJA 24 in the upper right corner. This date shall be considered the date the transcript was ordered for purposes of complying with the Ninth Circuit mandatory fee reduction. If the court reporter fails to date stamp the CJA 24, then the more recent of the dates entered by appointed counsel in item 15 of the CJA 24 or by the CJA Supervising Attorney granting special authorization, shall be the considered the date the transcript was ordered for purposes of complying with the Ninth Circuit mandatory fee reduction.

  5. With the above stated exception for special authorizations, no court authorization is required prior to the transcript being completed.

  6. Effective 05/27/08, all ordered transcripts will be electronically filed by the court reporter into the CM/ECF. A Notice of Electronic Filing ("NEF") will be sent to the requesting attorney on the date the court reporter does the electronic filing of ordered transcript.

  7. For purposes of determining compliance with the Ninth Circuit mandatory fee reduction, the court reporter shall attach a copy of the NEF, or NOF (Notice of Filing), to the completed CJA 24. If a hard copy of the NEF and/or the filed transcript has to be mailed to the requesting attorney, a copy of the postage receipt must also be attached to the completed CJA 24. The Ninth Circuit mandatory fee reduction will be taken for transcripts filed untimely unless the court reporter has attached a copy of the Ninth Circuit order waiving the reduction to the CJA 24.