Serrano

Porfirio Serrano and Lourdes Serrano appeal orders requiring them to pay the fees charged by Coast Court Reporters (Coast) for copies of deposition transcripts in a pending action and denying their request to relieve them of fees charged for expedited service. Coast had agreed to provide the copies to the Serranos on the condition that the Serranos and Coast would be bound by the trial court’s ruling as to the reasonableness of the fees. The trial court found that the expedited service fees were “unconscionable,” but concluded that it had no authority to limit the fees charged by Coast and ordered the Serranos to pay the fees.

We conclude that Code of Civil Procedure section 2025.510, subdivision (c), and the court’s inherent authority to control its ministerial officers and other persons connected with a judicial proceeding in furtherance of justice (§ 128, subd. (a)(5)), authorize the court to require a deposition reporter to provide a copy of a deposition transcript to a nonnoticing party in a pending action for a reasonable fee which, in the absence of an agreement between the interested parties, may be set by the court upon a proper evidentiary showing. We also…