reissued per diem court reporters RFP final 2-12-19.docx

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

OFFICE OF COURT MANAGEMENT

REQUEST FOR PROVIDERS (RFP) FOR

PER DIEM COURT REPORTERS

Purchasing Entity:

The Administrative Office of the Superior Court

Address:

Suffolk County Courthouse 3 Pemberton Square, 13th floor Boston, MA 02108

Telephone:

(617) 788-8130

RFP File Name/Title:

RE-ISSUED PER DIEM COURT REPORTERS

RFP Manager:

Richard Parsons, Associate Court Administrator Three Pemberton Square, 13th floor Boston, MA 02108

RFP Summary:

The Administrative Office of the Superior Court (AOSC) through the Office of Court Management (OCM) of the Massachusetts Trial Court, is seeking qualified bidders to provide court reporting services to the AOSC for certain criminal trials in the Superior Court Department. The AOSC will assign per diem court reporters to certain criminal proceedings pursuant to its Policy regarding Recording of Criminal Proceedings.

Official Publication Solicitation and Related Documents:

The Commonwealth’s sole official online procurement record site is “COMMBUYS”, http://www.commbuys.com. All clarifications, notifications, addenda or other documents or information related to this solicitation are officially published through the COMMBUYS website. Vendors should access the COMMBUYS website frequently for official communications related to this solicitation from the OCM. APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE COMMBUYS WEBSITE (INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED IN THIS RFP)

***BID SUBMISSION DEADLINE***

March 5, 2019 Initial Application Submission Deadline is 3:00 p.m. (EST)

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS

ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT DEPARTMENT

REQUEST FOR PROVIDERS (RFP) FOR

PER DIEM COURT REPORTERS

RFP TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Summary Sheet

SECTION 1.0 PROCURING ENTITY – OCM / AOSC

1. This RFP is being re-issued by the OCM, which is the central administrative office for the Trial Court of the Judicial Branch of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Trial Court).

1. It is issued under laws, rules, procedures and practices applicable to the Judicial Branch of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Judicial Branch is not subject to 801 CMR 21.00 et seq., which governs the procurement process of the Executive Branch of the Massachusetts state government. Vendors responding to this RFP should not assume that Judicial Branch procurement practices correspond directly to the procurement practices of other branches, agencies, departments, or divisions of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Additional terms and conditions may be introduced at the vendor selection and contract negotiation phases of this procurement process.

1. The Judicial Branch of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is composed of three separate court systems - the Supreme Judicial Court, the Appeals Court, and the Trial Court. The Supreme Judicial Court is the Commonwealth's highest appellate court and is responsible for the general superintendence of the judiciary and of the bar, makes or approves rules for the operations of all the courts and, in certain instances, provides advisory opinions, upon request, to the Governor and Legislature on various legal issues.

1. The Massachusetts Trial Court was consolidated into a statewide court system by Chapter 478 of the Acts of 1978. The Massachusetts Trial Court is now composed of the central administrative office (consisting of the Executive Office of the Trial Court, the OCM and the Office of the Chief Justice of the Trial Court [“OCJTC”]), seven departments (Boston Municipal Court, District Court, Probate and Family Court, Juvenile Court, Housing Court, Land Court and Superior Court), the Office of the Jury Commissioner, and the Office of the Commissioner of Probation.

1. Recent court reorganization legislation (Chapter 93 of the Acts of 2011) created the position of a Court Administrator (“CA”) who, in conjunction with the renamed position of CJTC, shares management duties. The CA is primarily responsible for court administration and the CJTC is primarily responsible for judicial administration. Together, the CA and CJTC manage and administer the Trial Court of Massachusetts and also have direct supervisory authority over the Office of the Commissioner of Probation and the Office of the Jury Commissioner. The CA is also the statutory employer of the approximately 6,400 employees of the Trial Court who work in over 100 locations across Massachusetts.

F.) All proceedings in criminal cases in the Superior Court are recorded by either an electronic recording system or a per diem court reporter. The AOSC assigns per diem court reporters from the list of eligible per diem court reporters to record certain criminal proceedings.

SECTION 2.0 PURPOSE AND SCOPE

The purpose of this RFP is to solicit responses from qualified bidders to provide court reporter services to the Administrative Office of the Superior Court in the types of criminal proceedings set forth in Administrative Directive 18-1, including recording such proceedings, and providing transcripts thereof when ordered. The intent of the resulting contract is to establish and maintain a list of pre-qualified vendors that will be used by the Superior Court.

This RFP supersedes the previous RFP for per diem court reporters, which was posted in May of 2018. The AOSC especially encourages applicants who are willing to travel to the Lawrence, Woburn, and Fall River Superior Courts as well as all Superior Courts west of Worcester, MA to apply. This RFP includes mileage reimbursement as additional compensation for approved per diem court reports.

When a list of per diem court reporters is procured as a result of this RFP, the Trial Court will discontinue use of per diem court reporters on its current list, which will be deactivated and terminated. Any vendor who wishes to continue to provide court reporter services must respond to this RFP.

SECTION 3.0 VENDORS

A.) For the purposes of this RFP, a Vendor shall be an individual court reporter.

B.) The list of per diem court reporters will not be capped at or restricted to a maximum number of vendors. The list will consist of all applicants that meet all requirements of this RFP, including the execution of all required contract documents detailed elsewhere in this RFP.

C.) All selected vendors are expected to perform at the highest standards, including compliance with Superior Court Administrative Directives 14-1[footnoteRef:1] and 14-2[footnoteRef:2] regarding preservation of records and recordings and transcription quality, timeliness and format. [1: Available at https://www.mass.gov/superior-court-rules/superior-court-administrative-directive-no-14-1-preservation-of-court-reporter. ] [2: Available at https://www.mass.gov/superior-court-rules/superior-court-administrative-directive-no-14-2-preservation-of-court-reporter. ]

SECTION 4.0 CONTRACT DURATION

A.) Initial Term. The initial term of this contract is three (3) years.

B.) Renewal Options. The contract will have three additional optional renewal periods of two (2) year for a maximum contract duration of nine (9) years, including the initial three year term and all possible renewal options. The optional renewal periods will be exercised at the sole discretion of the OCM. Any optional renewal periods shall be activated by written correspondence sent by the OCM to the vendors, informing them that the OCM is exercising the option to renew the contract for the time frame stated in the correspondence. The vendor agrees to complete and execute any documents necessary for the renewed agreement.

C.) Rolling Enrollment. This is a Rolling Enrollment Contract. Under the rolling enrollment process, the RFP never closes, allowing bidders to respond at any point during the life of the solicitation. However, all contracts will expire simultaneously.

D.) Opting Out. Vendors selected for inclusion on the List through this RFP may opt out of the List at any time by sending a written notice of withdrawal from the List to the AOSC (Attn: Richard Parsons, Associate Court Administrator of the Superior Court). Pending transcript assignments must be completed prior to withdrawal from the List.

SECTION 5.0 PROCUREMENT TIMETABLE*

The following schedule of events for this RFP identifies the key events and deadlines for this process, some of which are set forth in more detail in the sections that follow:

DATE EVENT

February 12, 2019 Request for Providers (RFP) Issued

February 19, 2019 Deadline for Submission of Vendor Questions

February 26, 2019 OCM Response Date to Vendor Questions (Estimated)

March 5, 2019 Initial Application Submission Deadline is 3:00 p.m. (EST)

March 12, 2019 Vendors Selected (Estimated)

April 1, 2019 List of Per Diem Court Reporters Active

*The OCM reserves the right to amend or delay any of the dates or times reflected above, as well as any other timeframes or deadlines referenced throughout this solicitation, if such a change is in the best interests of the OCM.

SECTION 6.0 PROCUREMENT PROCESS

1. Correspondence

All correspondence, including Vendor Inquiries and Application Submissions related to this RFP should be submitted through the Bid Q&A Tool on COMMBUYS (See Section 19.0).

1. Vendor Questions

(i.) Vendors may submit questions concerning this RFP through the Bid Q&A Tool on COMMBUYS no later than the dates and times specified in the Procurement Timetable. Vendors are advised that the OCM: (1) restricts submission of questions to the Bid Q&A tool and (2) requires all responses to be submitted using the online submission tools available to active COMMBUYS account holders only. No telephone or in-person inquiries will be accepted.

(ii) The OCM will review only properly submitted vendor questions received by the deadline for submission, and will provide answers for those questions deemed appropriate. Submission of a question does not guarantee a response to that question. The OCM reserves the right to provide consolidated responses to similar questions.

(iii.) The Answers to Vendor Questions will be made available electronically via COMMBUYS (Commonwealth Procurement and Solicitation System – http://www.commbuys.com ) to all vendors.

(iv.) Communication restrictions on vendors (i.e., communications limited to vendor questions submitted through COMMBUYS) does not restrict the Trial Court’s right to request additional information, clarifications, supplemental responses, etc., during the procurement process.

(v.) The OCM reserves the right to defer answers to questions regarding the the status of this procurement process or any response to it, except for any information officially published via COMMBUYS until a contract has been executed with the successful vendors and/or a formal Notice of Award has been released.

1. Review of Submitted Applications

(i.) The OCM will review all submitted applications to ensure compliance with all mandatory requirements of this RFP. Responses must be prepared in accordance with the provisions of this RFP. Please be sure you understand these provisions, as failure to fully comply is grounds for denial of a bid. However, the Trial Court reserves the right to waive any minor informality in a response or to deny any and all responses received at any stage of the procurement process. It is the policy of the Trial Court that contracts be awarded only to responsive vendors. In order to qualify as responsive, the vendor must respond to all requirements of this RFP in a complete and thorough manner.

(ii.) The AOSC will distribute notices of denial to those vendors whose responses are deemed by the AOSC not to be in compliance with the RFP. The AOSC reserves the right to proceed no further with a vendor deemed not sufficiently responsive or otherwise not conforming to the provisions of this RFP. The AOSC reserves the right to reject an application and not award a contract due to unacceptable past performance by a bidder.

SECTION 7.0 MANDATORY RFP DOCUMENTS

1. Vendors must submit fully executed originals of the following documents* and forms for their applications to be considered in compliance with this RFP:

Application for Approved Per Diem Court Reporter

Vendor’s Certification

Consent to Criminal Record Check

Commonwealth’s Terms and Conditions Form

1. Though all applications and Mandatory RFP Documents* are being submitted electronically via COMMBUYS, the OCM may request a wet-ink signature hard copy original of any document during the contracting phase with the selected vendors.

*Mandatory RFP documents submitted to COMMBUYS, must be done as 1 (one), or a single upload.

SECTION 8 .0 RFP RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Compliance with RFP Terms & Requirements

All applications/responses MUST be prepared in accordance with this RFP. Any application submitted with material deviations from the prescribed format, as determined by the OCM, may be considered non-responsive and excluded from further consideration or evaluation at the sole discretion of the OCM.

1. References:

(i.) The vendor must list three (3) customer references, preferably within Massachusetts, to be contacted with regard to the vendor’s reliability in providing court reporting services and the quality of transcripts of court proceedings conducted within the past two (2) years.

(ii.) Name(s), title(s), mailing address(es), e-mail address(es), telephone number(s), and dates of service of customer references must be provided in the Application for Approved Court Transcribers (Attachment A). The Trial Court prefers that two (2) of the customer references be non-Trial Court entities.

SECTION 9.0 MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS FOR PER DIEM COURT REPORTERS

To qualify for inclusion in the AOSC’s list of per diem court reporters and perform court reporting for the Massachusetts Trial Court, all vendors MUST fulfill the following Minimum Qualifications:

1. BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

1. AGE. Vendors must be 18 years of age or older.

1. CRIMINAL RECORD BACKGROUND CHECK. Vendors must consent to a Criminal Record Background Check (Criminal Offender Record Information – “CORI”) to allow the Trial Court to conduct a criminal record check for each individual bidder.

1. EDUCATION:

1. Graduation from high school or its equivalent; and

1. Either 10 years as an official or per diem court reporter for the Massachusetts Trial Court in the Superior Court, or one of the following certificates: (1) Registered Professional Reporter (RPR) from the National Court Reporters’ Association; (2) Verbatim Reporter (CVR) or Real-Time Verbatim Reporter (RVR) from the National Court Reporters Association, or a Certified Shorthand Reporter (CSR) from the Massachusetts Court Reporter Association. All certificates shall be mailed from the Registrar’s Office at each Association directly to Richard Parsons, Associate Court Administrator.

1. EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS*:

1. Proficient knowledge of Massachusetts State Courts general procedures, legal terminology, and practices, and working knowledge of Administrative Directive #1-08, the Uniform Transcript Format.

1. Proficient understanding of court reporting and court transcription practices.

1. Proficiency in English grammar, spelling and punctuation.

SECTION 10.0 TRANSCRIPT STANDARDS

A.) Timeliness.

Approved Per Diem Court Reporters must prepare transcripts within one hundred and twenty (120) days, in accordance with the Time Standards set forth in Administrative Order 09-2 for criminal cases.

1. Failure to Meet Accuracy and Time Standard.

Failure to prepare an accurate transcript in compliance with the Massachusetts Trial Court Uniform Transcript Format within the time standard stated may constitute cause for removal from the Trial Court’s contract pool of per diem court reporters.

SECTION 11.0 TRANSCRIPT FORMAT & PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

1. Massachusetts Trial Court Uniform Transcript Format (UTF)

1. Contents of Complete Transcripts.

Per diem court reporters when preparing transcripts must prepare a complete and accurate transcript of the proceedings including:

1. Certified original transcript;

1. Certified copies of the transcript;

1. Compressed transcript; four (4) compressed pages per page, attached to the certified original and certified copies of the transcript;

1. Word index; attached to the certified original and certified copies of the transcript;

1. Electronically signed certificate page; attached to the certified original and certified copies of the transcript;

1. PDF (portable document format) of the certified original transcript;

1. Transcription Production Requirements.

In producing transcripts, a per diem court reporter must:

(i.) Discern and transcribe every word spoken on the record.

SECTION 12.0 PER DIEM COURT REPORTER STANDARDS

A.) Per diem court reporters shall perform all duties in a competent and professional manner, including but not limited to, the following:

(i.) Attend all court proceedings as directed by the Administrative Office of the Superior Court;

(ii.) Maintain careful attention, proper dress, and court decorum during all court proceedings;

(iii.) Make an accurate record of all assigned proceedings;

(iv.) Read aloud such portion of the testimony or other proceedings as required by the judge;

(v.) Mark all exhibits with an appropriate identifying mark or stamp;

(vi.) Retain notes in compliance with the administrative directives 14-1 and 14-2;

(vii.) Make accurate transcripts, upon proper request; and (viii.) Deliver requested transcripts in a timely manner pursuant to administrative directive 09-02.

Failure to comply with all of the above may result in removal from the Trial Court’s contract pool of per diem court reporters.

B.) When new assignments are posted, the Associate Court Administrator shall notify all per diem court reporters in the region, using some convenient method (currently email). All per diem court reporters notified of an assignment must respond with their availability within two (2) business days.

C.) A per diem court reporter’s consistent failure to respond with his or her availability (irrespective of whether such response is in the affirmative or the negative) when assignments are proffered may result in removal from the Trial Court’s contract pool of per diem court reporters.

D.) In the event a per diem court reporter does not wish to or cannot accept cases for a finite period of time (i.e. travel, medical reasons, etc.), he or she shall notify the Associate Court Administrator of the dates he or she is not available to accept cases. Such approved periods of unavailability shall not constitute grounds for potential removal as described in Paragraph 12.C. above.

SECTION 13.0 RATES

A.) Per Diem Court Reporter

The rate for per diem court reporters will be $250.64 per day.

B.) Transcription

Transcription Services Rates for the Massachusetts Court System are set by statute and provided pursuant to G. L. Chapter 221, Sec. 88 as follows:

$3.00 per page per standard original $1.00 per page per standard copy Not to exceed $5.00 for each electronic reproduction requested $.10 per page for additional paper copies requested by an indigent person or counsel for an indigent person

C. Mileage Reimbursement Per diem court reporters shall be reimbursed for mileage at the rate of $.45 per mile. Reimbursement shall be for the lesser of the distances for the round-trip mileage from the court reporter’s home to the assigned courthouse or from the court reporter’s office to the assigned courthouse. The Trial Court reserves the right to request verification of mileage claims.

SECTION 14.0 INVOICES

A.) Procedure

Per diem court reporters shall be paid for services rendered and mileage upon submission and approval of properly prepared invoices. The Trial Court will review the invoices and, if accepted, will process same for payment.

Properly submitted invoices shall include, for each case on which reporting services were rendered:

0. The name and docket number of the case;

0. The request for a per diem court reporter signed by the Chief Justice’s designee;

0. The date(s) on which reporting services were rendered;

0. Brief description of the nature of proceeding (trial, motion hearing, etc.); and

0. Number of miles traveled to and from either home to court location or office to court location, see Section 13.C.

B.) Submission of Invoices

Properly prepared invoices submitted under this agreement shall be reviewed by the Associate Court Administrator, or his designee, and either rejected with specific cause(s) listed and returned to the vendor, or approved.

All invoices should be prepared and submitted to the Clerk’s Office where the reporting services for a particular case were rendered.

Invoices may be submitted periodically, as reporting services are rendered.

SECTION 15.0 SAMPLE MANDATORY CONTRACT DOCUMENTS

1. All selected vendors will be required to execute and submit the following documents as part of the resulting contract (samples of which are attached to this RFP in ATTACHMENT H –Mandatory Contract Documents):

1. Commonwealth of Massachusetts Standard Contract Form (and all related attachments, addenda and exhibits);

1. Electronic Funds Transfer (“EFT”) Sign Up Form;

1. Verification of Taxation Reporting Information (W-9) – Massachusetts Substitute W-9 Form (“W-9”); and

1. Contractor Authorized Signatory Listing (“CASL”) Form.

1. These Mandatory Contract Documents are provided only for review and reference and are not to be completed or submitted as part of the RFP Process.

SECTION 16.0 CONTRACT STRUCTURE

A.) The contract with vendors resulting from this RFP will consist of the following documents**, which are placed in the order of precedence:

1. Commonwealth Terms and Conditions;

1. Standard Contract Form;

1. RFP (inclusive of Attachments, Exhibits, Clarifications);

1. Vendor’s Application & Response to RFP

**The final contract may consist of documents not yet identified or listed in this section. The OCM reserves the right to include any such document that is necessary in order to finalize the contract resulting from this RFP.

SECTION 17.0 GENERAL RFP TERMS

1. Right To Amend, Alter Or Revoke

The OCM reserves the right to amend or cancel this RFP at any time, if it believes that doing so is in the best interests of the OCM. The OCM may cancel this RFP at any time prior to the execution and approval of a contract, in which event all responses received in response to this RFP will be rejected.

1. Cost of Vendor Responses to RFP

Vendors shall bear all costs associated with their proposal, including preparation, photocopying, postage, delivery costs and any travel expenses that may be incurred during the solicitation process. No costs or expenses incurred by vendors in responding to this RFP, or by participating in the RFP process, will be borne by the OCM.

1. Ownership, Use and Availability of Submitted Proposals.

1. All materials submitted by vendors in response to this RFP become the property of the OCM.

1. The OCM considers the responses to this RFP to be internal, working documents, which will become the property of the OCM, and it will not agree to any statements or endorsements in proposals or related documents submitted in response to this RFP that conflict with OCM practices related to such documents and material.

1. The OCM shall be under no obligation to return any proposal or materials submitted by a vendor in response to this RFP.

SECTION 18.0 MISCELLANEOUS CONTRACT STANDARDS

1. Conflict of Interests

A vendor per diem court reporter may not accept an assignment for which he or she has a conflict of interest in the proceedings assigned to be reported and/or transcribed.

SECTION 19.0 COMMBUYS PROCUREMENT WEBSITE & INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

COMMBUYS refers to all solicitations, including but not limited to Requests for Proposals (RFP), Invitations for Bid (IFB), Requests for Response (RFR), Requests for Quote (RFQ), as “Bids.” All responses to Bids are referred to as “Quotes.”

Steps for Bidders to Submit a Quote

1. Launch the COMMBUYS website by entering the URL (www.COMMBUYS.com) into the browser.

2. Enter Bidder login credentials and click the Login button on the COMMBUYS homepage. Bidders must be registered in COMMBUYS in order to submit a Quote. Each Vendor has a COMMBUYs Seller Administrator, who is responsible for maintaining authorized user access to COMMBUYS.

3. Upon successful login, the Vendor home page displays with the Navigation and Header Bar as well as the Control Center. The Control Center is where documents assigned to your role are easily accessed and viewed.

4. Click on the Bids tab

6. Click on the blue Open Bid hyperlinks to open and review an open bid

7. A new page opens with a message requesting you acknowledge receipt of the bid. Click Yes to acknowledge receipt of the bid. Bidders should acknowledge receipt to receive any amendments/updates concerning this bid.

i. Open Market

ii. Blanket

The top right half of the bid includes the following information:

9. The lower half of the page provides information about the specific goods/services the bid is requesting.

10. Click Create Quote to begin.

*It is important to note that the bid documents (RFR and attachments) may specify some or all of these terms and may prohibit you from altering these terms in your response. Read the bid documents carefully and fill in only those items that are applicable to the bid to which you are responding. Update these fields as applicable to the bid and click Save & Continue to save any changes and create a Quote Number.

12. The page refreshes and messages display. Any message in Red is an error and must be resolved before the quote can be submitted. Any message in Yellow is only a warning and will allow processing to continue.

13. Click the Items tab. The Items tab displays information about the items requested in the bid. To view additional details about an item, click the item number (blue hyperlink) to open.

14. The item opens. Input all of your quote information and click Save & Exit.

15. Click on the Attachments Tab. Follow the prompts to upload and name all required attachments and forms and bid response documents in accordance with the instructions contained in the solicitation or bid documents. After uploading each individual file or form, click Save & Continue. After you have uploaded all required documents click Save & Exit. Be sure to review your attachments to make sure each required document has been submitted.

16. Click on the Terms & Conditions Tab. This tab refers to the terms and conditions that apply to this bid. The terms and conditions must be accepted before your quote can be submitted. If your acceptance is subject to any exceptions, those exceptions must be identified here. Exceptions cannot contradict the requirements of the RFR, or required Commonwealth standard forms and attachments for the bid. For instance, an RFR may specify that exceptions may or will result in disqualification of your bid.

17. Click the Summary tab. Review the information and update/correct, as needed. If the information is correct, click the Submit Quote button at the bottom of the page.

18. A popup window displays asking for verification that you wish to submit your quote.

Click OK to submit the quote.

19. The Summary tab redisplays with an updated Status for the quote of Submitted.

20. Your quote submission is confirmed only when you receive a confirmation email from COMMBUYS. If you have submitted a quote and have not received an email confirmation, please contact the COMMBUYS Help Desk at COMMBUYS@state.ma.us.

*If you wish to revise or delete a quote after submission, you may do so in COMMBUYS: (1) for a formal bid, prior to the bid opening date, or (2) for an informal bid (which may be viewed upon receipt), prior to the opening of your quote by the issuing entity or the bid opening date, whichever is earlier.

*Bidders may not submit Multiple Quotes in response to a Bid unless the Bid authorizes Multiple Quote submissions. If you submit multiple quotes in response to a bid that does not allow multiple quotes, only the latest submission prior to the bid opening date will be evaluated.