Are deposition reporters officers of the court?

I've often heard that the court reporter at a deposition is the "officer of the court."  Is that true, and what does that even mean? 

Yes, abbaCSR, it is true.  The deposition officer is called that because they are in attendance at the deposition as the court's officer. Court reporters are referred to as “deposition officers” in the Code of Civil Procedure.  The exact code section as well as various regulations and rules governing depositions are in  section 2025.010.

As a depo reporter, you'll want to be readily familiar with that section of the code.  It's really sort of like the 10 Commandments of Court Reporting.  (Though, I didn't actually count to see if there are 10 or more.  But you get the point.)

In 2025 you will see a lot of this:

• The deposition officer shall ...
• The officer shall not...

So, yes, deposition reporters are officers of the court indeed.  Hope that helps a little. 

Yes, we are officers of the court.  We are actually there representing the court.  About six months ago I reminded an attorney of that fact.  I did a depo in a trademark case.  The client was present telephonically examining the witness.  Opposing counsel, of course, was in the room.  There was an also present in the room giving the witness hand signals and whispering to the witness in Hebrew.  It is not the reporter's job to

be the discovery police.  This was getting so out of hand, at a break I told opposing counsel that if the guy did it one more time, that I, as an officer of the court, would step in and inform opposing counsel what is going on.  After the break, the guy never came back into the room.

yes, threats work!!!  just be sure to add the words "as an officer of the court"  that gets their attention because it implies that the situation will be brought up before a Judge!  no atty wants to be dragged before a judge for disciplinary actions!

This happened to me last week at the end of an arbitration session.

The parties to the arbitration action left the room, and I was packing up my equipment.  As we all know, packing up a writer, laptop, cables and accessories takes a little time. You can't exactly throw a $5,000 writer into a suitcase.

During this process, the three arbitrators started to discuss the  action. One of the arbitrators asked me if I was "going to be very long."  Even though I was slightly annoyed by this question, I politely smiled and stated, "I am an officer of the court just as you are.  When my fingers are off the keys I don't listen to anything."   The other two arbitrators appreciated my subtle humor and they continued to discuss the case.