Court Opinion

ID: 9424693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:12:24.408064+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:44.304810
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Burger,
concurring.
I join the Court’s opinion but add these observations chiefly to underscore that there are alternatives in the majority of cases to a full verbatim transcript of an entire trial. The references to what was said in Draper v. Washington, 372 U. S. 487 (1963), emphasize the duty of counsel as officers of the court to seek only what is *200needed. In most cases, unlike this one, the essential facts are not in dispute on appeal, or if there is dispute it centers on certain limited aspects of the case. One need only examine briefs in appeals to see that at the appellate stage the area of conflict on the facts is generally narrow.
Every busy court is plagued with excessive demands for free transcripts in criminal cases.1 My own experience over the years indicates that privately employed counsel are usually spartan in their demands because the client must pay his own costs. Unfortunately one consequence of the advent of the Criminal Justice Act and state counterparts is that when costs are paid by the public, counsel are sometimes profligate in their demands, *201or yield their professional judgment to the client’s desires. This is more than a matter of costs. An affluent society ought not be miserly in support of justice, for economy is not an objective of the system; the real vice is the resulting delay in securing transcripts and hence determining the appeal. When excessive demands are made by an appellant in order to postpone the day when the appeal is finally determined, because, for example, he is at liberty pending appeal,2 a lawyer who cooperates is guilty of unprofessional conduct.
I quite agree with Mr. Justice Brennan that “a full verbatim record where that is necessary . . .” should be provided but judges and lawyers have a duty to avoid abuses that promote delays.

 It is not the increase in number of requested transcripts alone which has resulted in delay. The delay has been caused by the combination of this increase with the failure of the system to increase its ability to produce transcripts. Cf. Committee of Section of Criminal Law of American Bar Association, Appellate Delay in Criminal Cases: A Report, 2 Am. Crim. L. Q. 150, 153 (1964). In the typical situation in federal courts the reporter is an independent contractor selected by the Government to make a verbatim record of the entire proceedings. In some States the court reporter is an employee. In most systems the reporter independently contracts with the parties to transcribe the record at a certain fee per page. Although courts have supervisory power over the reporter, administration of the transcribing of the notes is often left largely if not completely to the discretion of the reporter. See generally Administrative Office of the United States Courts, The Court Reporting System in the United States District Courts 7-47 (1960). With the enormous increase in criminal cases, reporters are often unable to keep up with the demand for transcripts and at the same time continue with regular reporting. Some reporters fail to make adequate arrangements for stenographers to transcribe their notes, which can be done by someone other than the reporter. The failure of courts to give adequate supervision to the work of court reporters accounts for much of the delay in processing appeals. Courts have an obligation to exercise sufficient oversight of reporters to ensure that proceedings are transcribed with dispatch.

 See American Bar Association, Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Criminal Appeals § 2.3 (Approved Draft 1970), which concludes that “[a]utomatic release pending appeal” is one of the “unacceptable inducements to taking appeals.” See also id., § 2.5.