Call the Court Reporter
Video Transcribed: How do I get a court transcript in Oklahoma? I’m Oklahoma attorney James Wirth to do a few videos here regarding court reporters, court stenographers, getting transcripts. And this one is how do I get a transcript in Oklahoma related to a hearing?
So, first off we got to know that in civil cases, the court doesn’t automatically provide you with a court reporter. You have to make the request if you want one. Generally, you’re going to want one so everything is down and taken on the record.
So you’ve got that record, that transcript that can be used for an appeal, or it can show how somebody previously testified in order to show that they lied then, or to require them to try to testify in congruence with what they testified before at a subsequent hearing.
So you’re probably going to want a transcript, which means you’re going to request a court reporter. You’re going to pay that minimal court reporter fee to have that court reporter present. And then after the hearing is over, if you want that transcript, you actually have to make the request for it separate from making the request for the court reporter.
That is a separate thing. When a court reporter or stenographer takes down everything for the hearing that is not automatically a transcript, it actually takes a lot of work in time for the court reporter or stenographer to turn that information that they took at the hearing into a transcript. And they utilized the typing that they did as well as the audio recording that they took in order to do that.
So if you need a transcript, you will want to find out who the court reporter was. Normally that’ll be written down in the court docket. It’ll show parties present, this is the attorney, petitioner present, respondent present this is the attorney for the respondent and the court reporter was present taking it down.
That should have the court reporter’s name. That indicates who you need to talk to you. Talk to the court reporter, and then they can provide you with an estimate for the quote. And as far as the cost for the transcripts, it’s based on the number of pages.
I believe for court reporters that are at the courthouse, rather than a private court reporter you can hire separately, I believe they charge $3.50 cents a page. At least that’s what it was. I think it’s still the same, but don’t quote me on that.
So they would give you an estimate on how many pages they think it’s going to be, determine the quote based on that, and then you pay that to them. They give you a receipt, and they tell you how long it’s going to take.
The typical timeframe for a turnaround it’d be two weeks, six weeks, somewhere along those lines. If it has to be expedited, they may be able to do that for you. They may charge an additional fee for that, perhaps not.
And then you wait that additional time. They have it completed. And then their estimate of the number of pages may have been correct, it may have been off a little bit, so there may be a little bit more you have to pay at that point.
You pay that and you pick up the transcript and they provide you with an official copy for each of the parties, essentially. So they’re going to provide you with more than one copy that you can utilize. If you need to file those with the court for an appeal, then that is part of that as well.
So as far as that question goes, how do I get my transcript? It is number one, you need to tell the court that you want a court reporter. Number two, you need to pay the nominal $20 fee to the court clerk.
Number three, provide a receipt to the court clerks so they can have the reporter present. Then you have the hearing. Then you call the court reporter, find out what it’s going to cost to get the transcript. Pay that fee, pick up the transcript and pay any additional cost if there’s any overage there.
If you have any questions about the specifics or anything else related to law in Oklahoma, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney privately, confidentially that, rather than just taking general information from a video. To get that consultation scheduled, go online to makelaweasy.com.
