Opinion
22-9
06-15-2022
IN RE TRANSCRIPTS OF VOIR DIRE
HON. PAMELA PEPPER, CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
This order supersedes and takes the place of the April 28, 2008 Procedural Order signed by Chief Judge Rudolph T. Randa.
Per Judicial Conference policy, when a party orders a transcript, the transcript is made available in the clerk's office for ninety (90) days; during that time, the transcript is restricted to viewing in the court's Case Management/Electronic Case Filing database to court staff, public terminal users, attorneys of record who purchased the transcript and anyone whom the court will direct. Parties have the responsibility to review the transcripts of any proceedings and request redactions, if necessary. At the end of the ninety-day period, the transcripts are made public unless the court reporter needs additional time to make redactions requested by the parties.
Court reporters may prepare transcripts only of those portions of a trial requested by the party completing the AO 435 form (or, if the requesting party is a judge, those portions requested by the judge). A court reporter may prepare a transcript of the voir dire process only if the requesting party requests it by completing the relevant portion of the AO 435 form, or if the requesting judge specifies that the court reporter should prepare a transcript of the voir dire process.
If a transcript includes a transcription of the voir dire process, at the time the transcript is made available in the clerk's office the court reporter must notify the presiding judge that a transcript of the voir dire process has been made available for review. The presiding judge must balance the right to public access of the transcript with the jurors' right to privacy, consistent with applicable Seventh Circuit case law, and will seal the transcript of the voir dire process only if appropriate. The judge must consider which part of the transcript to seal: (A) the transcripts of the entire voir dire proceeding, which would be docketed separately from the rest of the trial transcript; or (B) the transcripts of the bench conferences with potential jurors, docketed separately from the transcripts of voir dire. No portion of the voir dire transcript will be sealed without an order from the presiding judge.