Back in Part 9 of this series I wrote about finally get an actual court file from the Monroe County Clerk’s office. Although it was a thick file, the one important thing that was missing was a transcript of the trial.

I looked for advice on where transcript are located from a local TV reporter. He said that I should visit Court Reporter’s office in the Civic Center. I did that yesterday. Although they have recent transcripts, a while after court cases are closed they are sent to the County Clerk’s office for storage. The Court Reporter said that for the case I was investigating from 1996-7 that the transcripts should cost $40. I didn’t pursue the transcripts as this was just an investigation on the process.

Prostologin 1, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Court Reporter did mention the date when transcript was filed at the Clerk’s office. On the computer listing from the Clerk’s office that corresponds to “CT 4 Orig.” That makes me think the transcript is on 4 inch wide paper off a stenographic machine. After all, this trial is from 1997. Modern stenographic machines can print full text on 8.5 x 11 paper but the older machines use a complicated code that usually only stenographers understand. On the right is what a print-out from an old stenographic machine looks like.

The Court Reporter did give me information that could be helpful to those trying to get transcriptions of Court cases. She said that the County court keeps a transcript for criminal case for 50 years but a civil court case (in County Court) transcript is only kept for for 5 years. Rochester City Court transcripts are kept for 10 years.

So if you are looking for court cases at the Monroe County Clerk’s office, be sure to tell them if you also want to see the actual trial transcripts. But that transcription may not be in a form that you can easily read.