13th Judicial Circuit - Circuit Court Reporting Services

Circuit Court Reporting Services
800 E. Twiggs Street, Room 606R
Tampa, FL 33602
(813) 307-3597

Court Reporting in the 13th Judicial Circuit is a hybrid model consisting of an employee staff model and contractual model. The employee staff model provides traditional stenographic services to cover nine felony divisions.

The contractual service model is provided by WUSF, as general contractor. Through their subcontractor, RTI directly provides digital court reporting and transcription services to 27 divisions, which includes preliminary presentation, felony, drug courts, juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency, domestic violence and county criminal divisions.

For information regarding the Comprehensive Plan for Court Reporting Services in this circuit, see Administrative Order 2005-128.

Court reporting is the process of taking a “word-for-word” record of everything spoken in a legal proceeding, which is an extremely important part of day-to-day operations of court in criminal, juvenile and domestic violence cases. In family law cases, probate/guardianship cases and civil lawsuits, parties are responsible for hiring private court reporters.

CIRCUIT COURT REPORTING SERVICES FAQs

"Are all proceedings at the 13th Judicial Circuit either digitally recorded or stenographically recorded for circuit and county criminal cases?"

Yes. preliminary presentation, misdemeanor, criminal, traffic, juvenile dependency, juvenile delinquency, and domestic violence cases are digitally recorded. Felony court is a hybrid model, which utilizes both digital recording and stenographic recorded proceedings.

For civil, family and civil traffic infraction cases, it is the responsibility of the litigants to hire a court reporter.

"Can I order an audio CD or a transcript from a court hearing?"

Yes. You may obtain a copy of the audio CD or printed transcript from any digitally recorded proceeding. If the proceeding was stenographically reported only the transcript is available.

"If I don’t know if a proceeding was digitally recorded or stenographically reported, how can I determine that?"

CRIMINAL JUSTICE & TRIAL
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
A	Sleet, Daniel H.	Digital	514-5100
B	Pomponio, Denise A.	Digital	514-5100
C	Foster, Robert A., Jr	Steno	307-3597
D	Battles, Emmett L.	Digital	514-5100
E	Holder, Gregory P.	Steno	307-3597
F	Timmerman, Wayne S	Steno	307-3597
G	Ficarrotta, Ronald N.	Steno	307-3597
H	Padgett, J. Rogers	Steno	307-3597
I	Lopez, Manuel A.	Digital	514-5100
J	Black, Anthony J.	Digital	514-5100
K	Perry, Daniel L.	Steno	307-3597
TRIAL 1	Fleischer, Barbara	Steno	307-3597
TRIAL 2	Fuente, William	Steno	307-3597

DRUG COURT
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
W	Maye, Vivian C.	Digital	514-5100
Y	Maye, Vivian C.	Digital	514-5100

EMERGENCY
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
O	Henrich, Walter R.	Digital	514-5100

UNIFIED FAMILY COURT: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
G	Palomino, Raul C. (Sonny)	Digital	514-5100
H	Thomas, Cheryl	Digital	514-5100

UNIFIED FAMILY COURT: JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
A	Sabella, Christopher C.	Digital	514-5100
B	Moody, Ashley	Digital	514-5100
F	Sisco, D. Michelle	Digital	514-5100

UNIFIED FAMILY COURT: JUVENILE DRUG COURT
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
E	Maye, Vivian C.	Digital	514-5100

UNIFIED FAMILY COURT: JUVENILE DEPENDENCY
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
C	Barbas, Rex M.	Digital	514-5100
D	Sheehan, Tracy	Digital	514-5100
I	Baumann, Herbert, Jr.	Digital	514-5100
J	Espinosa, Jack Jr.	Digital	514-5100
S	Behnke, Debra K.	Digital	514-5100
M	Baumann, Herbert, Jr.	Digital	514-5100
V	Essrig, Katherine G.	Digital	514-5100

EAST CIRCUIT – UNIFIED FAMILY COURT: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
S	Vogel, Christine K.	Steno	514-5100

COUNTY CRIMINAL
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
A	Dominguez, James V.	Digital	514-5100
B	Courtney, Margaret T.	Digital	514-5100
C	Conrad, John R.	Digital	514-5100
D	Barber, Tom	Digital	514-5100
E	Lefler, Lawrence, M.	Digital	514-5100
G	Rice, Elizabeth G.	Digital	514-5100

COUNTY CRIMINAL: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
F	Nazaretian, Nick	Digital	514-5100

FIRST APPEARANCE
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
O	Heinrich, Walter R.	Digital	514-5100

EAST COUNTY
DIVISION	JUDGE	DIGITAL/STENO	CONTACT NUMBER
P	McNeil Art E.	Digital	514-5100
Q	Vogel, Christine K.	Digital	514-5100

"Can anyone obtain transcripts of court proceedings?"
Yes, According to Florida’s Sunshine Law, Chapter 286.011, Florida Statutes, transcripts of proceedings are considered public record, with the exception of certain matters which are confidential by law.

"What types of court reporting methods does the 13th Judicial Circuit use?"
Staff Stenographers provide traditional stenographic services in some felony divisions.

Digital Court Reporting captures and records, with the assistance of encoding hardware and software, the complete verbatim multi-media court record of any and all proceedings before the divisions of the court, as specified for transcription.

"Who is the provider of the digital court reporting system?"
Digital Court Reporting is provided by WUSF, as general contractor through its subcontractor: Records Transcripts, Inc. (813) 514-5100.

"What laws govern court reporting?"
Fla. Statutes: Section 25.383 (Standards for Court Reporters)
                        Section 27.0061 (Transcripts in Criminal Cases)
                        Section 90.108(2) (Transcripts as Prima Facie Evidence)
                        Section 839.24 (Penalty for Failure to Perform)
                        Section 905.26 and 905.27 (Governing Grand Jury Proceedings)

Fla. Rules of Judicial Administration: Rules 2.050 (b) (6) & (g) (Requirements/Directives of the Judge)
                        Rule 2.070 (Court Reporting Standards and Requirements)
                        Rule 2.075 (e) (Retention of Court Records)

Fla. Rules of Appellate Procedure : Rule 9.200 (requirements for the Appellate Record)

"Who may I contact for further information about Court Reporting?"
Circuit Court Reporting Services
813-307-3597

.13th Judicial Circuit - Circuit Court Reporting Services