COURTS/COURT REPORTERS: Provides relative to the retention of notes and recordings of court reporters
HB 179 sets new rules for how court reporters must handle recordings and notes in Louisiana courts. For criminal cases, reporters must retain all notes and recordings indefinitely (unless all defendants are acquitted), while for civil cases, they must keep them for at least five years after trial. The bill clarifies that all recordings remain the property of the court, not the reporter, and must stay under the court's custody even if a reporter retires or leaves. This directly affects court reporters by defining their retention duties and ownership responsibilities.
Bill status
signed
all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2026
Committee Review
Apr 2026
House Passage
Apr 2026
Senate Passage
May 2026
Signed into Law
May 2026
Introduced Feb 18, 2026
Signed May 11, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons
What changed between versions
HB179 Original
→
HB179 Act
·
3 edits
MINOR
The bill was finalized into an enrolled Act, adding official signatures from the Speaker, Senate President, and Governor. The substantive text regarding court reporter retention of notes and recordings remains unchanged, though minor formatting corrections were made to fix repetitive words like 'are the' and 'reporters' that appeared in the original draft.
TECHNICAL
Corrected repetitive and grammatical errors in the text, such as removing duplicate words like 'are the' and 'reporters' that were present in the original draft but not in the final Act.
Added official enrollment markings, including the title 'ENROLLED', Act number 60, and signature lines for the Speaker of the House, President of the Senate, and Governor.
Removed the 'DIGEST' section at the end of the document, which is a summary prepared by legislative services and is not part of the actual law.
Floor votes · Senate May 5, 2026 · House Apr 1, 2026
How they voted
33–0
Passed · 7 other
Total votes 40
May 5, 2026
D
Democratic12
83% Yea
R
Republican28
82% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
20
Key actions
4
Committee
5
May 5, 2026
Upper · Passed
Read by title, passed by a vote of 32 yeas and 0 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.
upper
Apr 22, 2026
Committee
Read by title and referred to the Legislative Bureau.
upper
Apr 21, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported favorably.
upper
Apr 1, 2026
Lower · Passed
Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 100, nays 0. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.
lower
Mar 26, 2026
Lower · Passed
Reported with amendments (12-0).
lower
Mar 9, 2026
Committee
Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
lower
Feb 18, 2026
Committee
Under the rules, provisionally referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
lower
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Nicholas Muscarello
RRepublican
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