Court Reporters

Court Reporter Management Plan for the Western District of N.C.

This Plan for the effective utilization of court reporters for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina and applies to all court reporters employed by the Court.
Court Reporter Management Plan | Western District of North Carolina | United States District Court (uscourts.gov)

Instructions for Requesting a Transcript

If you need to order a transcript for a court proceeding from an official court reporter, or if you would like to purchase a copy of a previously produced transcript, you may contact the official court reporter directly to make arrangements for purchase.
Please use this link for the Transcript Order From AO 435. https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/ao435.pdf 

If you need to order a transcript of a court proceeding that was digitally recorded reflected as DCR on the docket entry, you must contact Transcript Coordinator Tammy Hightower 704-350-7416 or tammy_hightower@ncwd.uscourts.gov.

New Transcript Fee Rates (effective 10/1/2023)

  • To determine if there was a court reporter or whether the proceeding was digitally recorded, please check the docket. The court reporter's name is located in the docket entry indicating that a proceeding was held. If the proceeding was recorded, the docket entry will reflect that the hearing was digitally recorded as DCR.
  • Before contacting Tammy Hightower, please have the following information ready:
    • Case number
    • Defendant Name (in a criminal case)
    • Presiding Judge (if known)
    • Date of proceeding
  • If you need a copy of a transcript that has been filed with the court and it is still locked on the docket, please contact the official court reporter who transcribed the transcript to make arrangements for purchase.
  • CJA attorneys should make their requests in eVoucher following the instructions for CJA 24's at this link: https://ncw.fd.org/content/evoucher-info

Requesting Realtime Transcripts or Daily Transcripts

  • If you are anticipating wanting access to realtime during your court proceeding or needing daily transcripts produced, please contact Tammy Hightower 704-350-7416 or tammy_hightower@ncwd.uscourts.gov at least two weeks prior to the hearing.  She will direct you to the reporter who will be assigned to the hearing for making financial arrangements.

Attorney's Obligation Regarding Redaction of Transcripts

  • The responsibility for redacting personal identifiers from transcripts rests solely with counsel and the parties.  The Clerk and the Court Reporter will NOT review each transcript for compliance with this rule. Once the transcript filed it is the burden of the parties to request any redactions and you have 21 days to do so.  For more information please review our Administrative Procedures Governing Filing and Service by Electronic Means at this link: https://www.ncwd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/general-orders/ADMINORDER_2.pdf