On May 12, Delaware Chief Justice Myron T. Steele rescinded Administrative Directive 132, which contained provisions prohibiting third party contracting for court reporting services. The anticontracting rules had been challenged by Esquire Deposition Services in federal court, but the chief justice rescinded the order before the federal court ruled on the case.
As an apparently unintended consequence, Chief Justice Steele's action went beyond the challenged anticontracting language and vacated the entirety of Delaware's Administrative Directive 132 (amended), including the rules establishing the Delaware Certified Shorthand Reporter Board and specifying the stenographic method.
In the order that rescinded the directive, the chief justice wrote that "Directive 132 was not the optimal way to accomplish the Directive's intended purpose."
According to a press release from Esquire Solutions, the company challenged the constitutionality of the anticontracting provisions. The Esquire press release quoted CEO Alexander Gallo, RPR: "We consider the decision to rescind Directive 132 a major victory for court reporting firms and litigants in Delaware and across the country. This decision paves the way for healthy competition among court reporting firms and reopens the door to free enterprise that Directive 132 had closed."
NCRA supports rules and laws to limit or prohibit third-party contracts that diminish the perceived or actual impartiality of the court reporter.
Link to ruling