Court Reporting Services

Court reporting is defined as the process of capturing the live testimony in court proceedings. To accomplish this, the Tenth Judicial Circuit engages both traditional court stenography and centralized digital court reporting practices to capture a complete and accurate record of most non-civil court proceedings, pursuant to the parameters as set forth in local Administrative Order 1-22.6 IN RE: ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN FOR THE PROVISION OF COURT REPORTING SERVICES INVOLVING PUBLIC EXPENSE: Administrative Order 1-22.6.

Centralized Digital Court Reporting

The most common method of court reporting primarily being utilized in the Tenth Judicial Circuit is centralized digital court reporting. The OpenCourt digital court reporting system is installed and implemented in all of our courthouses throughout Polk, Highlands and Hardee Counties. This system uses digital audio equipment to record court proceedings. The Tenth Judicial Circuit’s Office of Electronic Court Reporting employs a staff of fourteen electronic court reporters, twelve onsite electronic court reporters work out of a centralized location in Polk County and monitor all court proceedings occurring at the Polk County courthouse locations while two onsite electronic court reporters work out of a centralized location in Highlands County and monitor all applicable court proceedings occurring in both Highlands and Hardee County courthouse locations. These onsite electronic court reporters monitor all applicable proceedings from a central location, creating tags for the cases called, identifying speakers and listening to the recordings to ensure clarity and quality.

Office of Electronic Court Reporting (ECR)

The Office of Electronic Court Reporting is required to cover the following court proceedings:

In civil, family and civil traffic infraction cases, it is the responsibility of the litigants to hire a court reporter. Family Pro Se cases are recorded for the court's use only.

The Office of Electronic Court Reporting is responsible for producing written transcripts of their recorded proceedings. A transcript and/or audio cd may be purchased by a requesting party pursuant to these instructions:

To Order Transcripts

Hardee/Highlands Instructions
Polk Instructions

To Order an Audio CD

*We can now send audio files to you via email after we've received payment.
Please read Prohibition Against Dissemination
Hardee/Highlands Instructions
Polk Instructions

For more information, please contact Sue Grubba, ECR Manager at (863) 534-4009 or by email at sgrubba@jud10.flcourts.org.