2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY-TWO Appendix (§§ 1 — 39.4) › Appendix III - Rules of Civil Procedure for the General Court of Justice, 1979 (§§ 39.2 — 39.4) › Part VIII - PROCEEDINGS SUBSEQUENT TO JUDGMENT › Rule 54 - Record on appeal or certiorari before the circuit court of appeals › Rule 54.3 - Transcription of oral evidence

(a) A party in an appeal or in a discretionary remedy before the Circuit Court of Appeals may request the court only as provided in Rule 54.2(a), to order the preparation of a transcript of the oral evidence or a portion thereof.
(b) To such effects, the proponent party shall file a motion before the Circuit Court of Appeals no later than thirty (30) days from the date on which notice of appeal was filed, or notice of the issuing of the petitioned writ was served. In said motion, the proponent party shall state the reasons for which he/she considers the transcript to be indispensable. If the proponent party is the appellant or petitioner, he/she shall also show why it is not possible to submit a stipulated or a narrative statement. In any case, the proponent shall identify in the motion, the pertinent portions of the record before the Court of First Instance whose transcript is wanted, including the date of the testimony and the names of the witnesses.
(c) Once the transcript is ordered, the proponent shall request a rerecording of the proceedings from the Court of First Instance. The motion to such effects shall be filed within ten (10) days following the notice of the order of the Circuit Court of Appeals. Along with the motion, the proponent party shall include the corresponding fees, pursuant to the rules approved by the Supreme Court.
(d) The re-recording shall be made pursuant to the terms and procedures established in the rules approved to such effects by the Supreme Court. Once the new recording has been completed, the clerk of the Court of First Instance shall deliver it to the proponent party and shall serve notice thereof to the other parties and to the Circuit Court of Appeals. In cases in which a pro bono transcript is to be made pursuant to subsection (f) of this Rule 54.3, the same shall be made as provided in the rules approved by the Supreme Court.
(e) The transcript of oral evidence authorized by the Circuit Court of Appeals shall be made by the requesting party, at its own expense, and within the term of thirty (30) days from the delivery of the rerecording. A private stenographer licensed under the rules approved by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico shall be used for this purpose.
(f) The fees paid by the proponent party to the licensed private stenographer shall be recoverable as costs, should that party prevail in the appeal, unless the Circuit Court of Appeals determines that the transcript was not necessary or useful to settle the appeal.
When the proponent of the transcript is indigent, or it is the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its municipalities, administrative bodies, instrumentalities, or officials in their official capacity, or when it is impossible to re-record of the proceedings, the transcript shall be prepared pro-bono by the officials of the Court of First Instance, pursuant to the terms and procedures established in this Rule 54.3, and in the Rules approved by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. Should it be necessary, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court shall authorize the contracting of licensed private transcribers to perform said pro-bono transcripts in one or more cases, pursuant to the parameters established in the rules approved by the Supreme Court.
(g) An index the names and the pages in which the statements of each one of the witnesses appear shall be included with every transcript. Furthermore, the transcript shall be certified by the licensed stenographer as a true and exact reproduction of the transcribed re-recording.
(h) The transcripts shall be prepared and filed with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Appeals within the term ordered by said Court. It shall be the duty of the proponent party to furnish copies of the transcript of the oral evidence to the other parties within that same term. Said term shall be extendible only for just cause and by a duly grounded motion. If the stenographer fails to comply with the specified term, it shall be the duty of the proponent party to inform the Circuit Court of Appeals as soon as possible, in a diligent and expedited manner, and to seek other options to prepare the transcript within the term ordered by the Court.
History —Amended on Dec. 25, 1995, No. 249, § 33, eff. May 1, 1996.