CHAPTER 642

An Act to provide for the recording of the evidence in certain cases and
the payment of the costs thereof and to provide for the costs of tran-

scripts.
[S 396]
Approved April 4, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That in felony cases, subject to the limitations hereinafter set out,
and in all civil cases involving an amount in excess of three hundred dollars,
the court, or judge trying the case, may by order entered of record provide
for the recording verbatim of the evidence and incidents of trial, and shall
prescribe the compensation to be paid the reporter; such compensation
shall not, however, exceed the sum of twenty dollars per day; and the
expense of reporting or recording the trial of criminal cases shall be paid
by the Commonwealth out of the appropriation for criminal charges, upon
approval of the trial judge, but the Commonwealth shall be entitled to
receive from the defendant, if convicted, the per diem charges of the
reporter, which shall be taxed as a part of the costs of the case. The ex-
pense of reporting and recording the trial of a civil case shall be paid by
the litigants in the manner and in the proportion as the court may in its
discretion direct.

A transcript of the record, when required by any party, shall be paid
for by such party; provided, that the court on appeal may provide that
such cost may, in civil cases, be reimbursed to the party prevailing.

The failure to secure the services of a reporter, or the failure to have
the case reported or recorded for any other reason, shall not affect the
proceeding or trial.
This act shall become effective January 1, 1953, and the administration
hereof shall be under the directions of the Supreme Court of Appeals of
Virginia, and the amount which may be expended hereunder for reporting
or recording criminal cases shall not exceed during the biennium ending
June 30, 1954, the sum of $25,000.