NCRA Board of Directors Issue Position Statements on E-Filing and Online Transcript Repositories

The NCRA Board of Directors has approved the following position statements.

• E-Filing
  The issue of e-filing continues to expand across the country, and the Board determined that there was an immediate need to spotlight some of the risks involved with the electronic filing of court documents and transcripts (privacy, public safety, etc.) as well as the potential impact on reporter income.
  
  
• Online Transcript Repositories
  For some time the Board has been aware of online deposition banks being established by and for groups of lawyers as a way to share expert testimony. These online repositories raise several concerns, including safeguards for personal data, whether or not individual transcripts are in the public record, and protections against subsequent distribution. Therefore, the Board directed the drafting of a policy statement indicating NCRA’s belief that distribution of transcripts via online depositories should be prohibited unless the following guarantees are offered:
  1. Private and confidential information as identified by current federal guidelines has been redacted from the transcript.
  2. Only those transcripts that have been made part of the public record, either through filing with a court or through the permission of the parties and the deponents, are posted online.
  3. The posting party has confirmed that such a practice does not violate local rules and regulations governing the terms and restrictions on the distribution of transcripts.