Project Information

Bid Title

Closed Captioning Services

Issuing Agency

Judical Council of California

Location

California

Published Date

Apr 6, 2026

Closing Date

May 1, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Ref. #

No. BAP-2025-08-TK

Original Source

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Bid Documents

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Project Description

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Request for Proposal

Closed Captioning Services

This request for proposal seeks the services of a qualified vendor to provide full-scale, real-time verbatim closed-captioning services to the Judicial Council.

Important dates

Issued date

April 06, 2026

Questions Due

April 17, 2026
01:00 PM

Questions should be directed to solicitations@jud.ca.gov(link sends email) and must be received no later than 1:00 PM Pacific Time, April 17, 2026.

Deadline

May 01, 2026
01:00 PM

• Status
  Open
• Topic
  Non-Facilities Contracts - Miscellaneous
• Deadline
  May 01, 2026
  01:00 PM
• ID#
  BAP-2025-08-TK

Description

The Judicial Council of California, chaired by the Chief Justice of California, is the policy-making body for the California court system.

This request for proposal seeks the services of a qualified vendor to provide full-scale, real-time verbatim closed-captioning services to the Judicial Council, the Supreme Court of California, the Courts of Appeal, the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, and the 58 Superior Courts of California. The services will include full-scale, real-time verbatim closed captioning of proceedings and other live and pre-recorded meetings, media, and forums.

The Judicial Council anticipates awarding a master agreement for an initial three-year term, with two consecutive one-year options for a potential maximum of five years (“Master Agreement”). Each of the two option terms may be exercised at the Judicial Council’s sole discretion. Any resulting contract is estimated to be effective from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029.

Questions should be directed to solicitations@jud.ca.gov (link sends email) and must be received no later than 1:00 PM Pacific Time, April 17, 2026.

Proposals must be received by the Judicial Council no later than 1:00 PM, Pacific Time, May 1, 2026.

Attachments

• Attachment 9 DVBE Declaration New
• Attachment 10 Reference Form New
• Exhibit 1 Requirements Response Form New
• Exhibit 2 Pricing Form New
• RFP BAP-2025-08-TK New
• Attachment 1 Administrative Rules Governing RFPs Non-IT Services New
• Attachment 2 JBE Standard Terms and Conditions New
• Attachment 3 Proposers Acceptance of Terms and Conditions New
• Attachment 4 General Certifications Form New
• Attachment 5 Darfur Contracting Act Certification New
• Attachment 6 Unruh and FEHA Certification New
• Attachment 7 Iran Contracting Act Certification New
• Attachment 8 Bidder Declaration New

Disclaimer

The Judicial Council, as a public entity, prohibits direct contact with any Council personnel during the solicitation process in order to maintain fairness and equality to all proposers.
Proposers are specifically directed NOT to contact any judicial branch entity personnel or consultants for meetings, conferences, or discussions that are related to the solicitation at any time between release of the solicitation and any award and execution of a contract.
Unauthorized contact with any judicial branch entity personnel or consultants may be cause for rejection of the Proposer’s proposal.

Attachment Preview

RFP Title: Closed Captioning Services

RFP Number: BAP-2025-08-TK

REQUEST FOR

PROPOSALS

JUDICIAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA

REGARDING:

RFP BAP-2025-08-TK Closed Captioning Services

PROPOSALS DUE:

May 1st, 2026, NO LATER THAN 1:00 P.M. PACIFIC TIME

1

rev December 2025

RFP Title: Closed Captioning Services

RFP Number: BAP-2025-08-TK

1.0 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.1. The Judicial Council of California (“Judicial Council” or “the council”), chaired by

the Chief Justice of California, is the policy-making agency of the California judicial

system. The California Constitution directs the council to improve the administration

of justice by surveying judicial business, recommending improvements to the courts,

and making recommendations annually to the Governor and the Legislature. The

council also adopts rules for court administration, practice, and procedure, and

performs other functions prescribed by law. The council’s staff assists both the

council and its chair in performing their duties for the purpose of this Request for

Proposal (“RFP”).1

1.2. The Superior Court system in California comprises 58 trial courts, one in each

county. Trial courts provide a forum for resolution of criminal and civil cases under

state and local laws. As used within this RFP, the term “trial court” is used

synonymously with Superior Court or Court.

1.3. This RFP is being issued by the Judicial Council, on behalf of itself, the Supreme

Court of California, the Courts of Appeal, the Habeas Corpus Resource Center and

the 58 Superior Courts of California (collectively, “Judicial Branch Entities,” or

“JBEs” and individually, a “JBE”).

1.4. The council seeks the services of a qualified vendor to provide full-scale, real-time

verbatim closed-captioning services to the Judicial Branch Entities. The services will

include full-scale, real-time verbatim closed captioning of proceedings and other live

and pre-recorded meetings, media, and forums, including, but not limited to, those

described in sections 2.0 (Services) and 3.0 (Deliverables) of this RFP.

1.5. Captioning Services must be performed in the United States and provided by a

vendor who has a presence in the United States.

1.6. The Judicial Council has estimated its requirements for Captioning Services to be up

to, but not limited to, 150 hours of Captioning Services for each one-year period.

Distribution of these hours over the calendar year will be variable and generally

unpredictable. This estimate does not include potential Captioning Services for the

other JBEs. An example of the Judicial Council’s captioning needs in 2026 is

provided below:2

Supreme Court events: Note that these are reserved dates. As the events get closer,

the Supreme Court usually reduces the days down from 5 days to 3, 2, or 1 day of

oral argument and captioning is typically 6 hours/day.

1 Capitalized terms used throughout this RFP are defined in the context of the RFP or in section 8.0 (Defined

Terms). The summary of terms in this RFP is qualified in its entirety by the more detailed information contained in

the Terms and Conditions.

2 Note that the contract period is estimated to begin July 1, 2026, and prior dates serve to illustrate an annual

example only.

2

rev December 2025

RFP Title: Closed Captioning Services

RFP Number: BAP-2025-08-TK

January 5-9, 2026

February 2-6, 2026

March 2-6, 2026

April 6-10, 2026

May 4-8, 2026

May 18-22, 2026

June 1-5, 2026

September 8-11, 2026

October 5-9, 2026

November 2-6, 2026

December 7-11, 2026

Judicial Council events: (Note that these usually only need captioning on one of the

reserved days for 2-4 hours.)

February 19-20, 2026

April 23-24, 2026

July 16-17, 2026

October 15-16, 2026

December 10-11, 2026

1.7. The Judicial Council anticipates awarding a master agreement for an initial three-year

term, with two consecutive one-year options for a potential maximum of five years

(“Master Agreement”). Each of the two option terms may be exercised at the Judicial

Council’s sole discretion. Any resulting contract is estimated to be effective from

July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029.

1.8. The Judicial Branch Entities will be under no obligation to participate in any resulting

Master Agreement or to issue any work orders under any resulting Master

Agreement. Any Judicial Branch Entity shall have the right to place orders under the

resulting Master Agreement by entering into a Participating Addendum with the

vendor). For the Judicial Council (the “Establishing JBE”), no additional

Participating Addendum is necessary.

1.9. The Judicial Council does not guarantee that the selected vendor will receive a

specific volume of work, a specific total amount, or a specific order value under the

awarded Master Agreement for these services. Additionally, there will be no limit on

the number of orders the Judicial Council or a Judicial Branch Entity may issue under

the Master Agreement, nor will there be any specific limitation on the quantity, and

maximum value of individual orders.

2.0 SERVICES

2.1 The purpose of this RFP is to provide the JBEs with full-scale, real-time verbatim

closed-captioning services as further described herein. Captioning Services must meet

Americans with Disabilities Act and the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

(WCAG) 2.1 rule requirements to improve viewer comprehension and engagement.

3

rev December 2025

RFP Title: Closed Captioning Services

RFP Number: BAP-2025-08-TK

2.2 JBEs may elect, but are not required, to purchase Captioning Services under the

Master Agreement. JBEs that elect to purchase Captioning Services under the Master

Agreement will enter into a Participating Addendum, substantially in the form of the

sample Participating Addendum provided in Attachment 2 (Judicial Council Standard

Terms and Conditions) with the vendor.

2.3 Subject to the terms and conditions of the Master Agreement, each Participating

Addendum will set forth the specific services, deliverables, schedule, and any specific

requirements (such as invoicing) for the individual JBE. Each Participating

Addendum will constitute a separate independent contract between the vendor and

the JBE signing the Participating Addendum.

2.4 The Master Agreement will be nonexclusive. The Judicial Council may have other

agreements for the same or similar services, and each JBE reserves the right to

provide or have others provide the same or similar services.

2.5 During the term of the Master Agreement, vendor must provide an account manager

to oversee the agreement, captioning requests, billing, and be responsive to any

technical or customer service needs that arise. Vendor must be able to provide on-call

technical support during live caption events; and program manager shall be available

during conventional business hours, generally between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.

2.6 Vendor shall sign-in to live caption events at least 10 minutes prior to the scheduled

starting time and shall stay on until its conclusion, even if it runs longer than the

scheduled time.

2.7 Vendor must invoice according to specific assignments and Accounting Codes

provided by any resulting Work Order or Purchase Order.

3.0 DELIVERABLES

3.1 Captioning and transcripts must be a word-for-word representation of the project’s

audio, even if they are grammatically incorrect or the speaker false starts or changes

direction mid-sentence.

A. The quality of captioning and unedited transcripts must not exceed an error

rate of five percent (5%) for the duration of live real-time events.

B. The quality of captioning and edited transcripts must not exceed an error rate

of 0.1 percent (0.1%) for pre-recorded projects.

C. The accuracy of Captioning Services provided under the Master Agreement

will be the sole responsibility of the vendor. Vendor must explain how

accuracy rating is monitored and determined for both captioning and

transcripts.

4

rev December 2025

RFP Title: Closed Captioning Services

RFP Number: BAP-2025-08-TK

3.2 Captioning with Unedited Caption Transcript Files

The vendor must have a fixed hourly rate for Captioning Services that come with

unedited captioning transcript, inclusive of .smi and .docx (or equivalent) file types.

The vendor must provide, at no additional charge, an unedited captioning transcript

which will be emailed to the JBE no later than one (1) Business Day after conclusion

of live real-time events. Unedited transcripts shall be provided to the JBE, upon

request, up to one (1) year after the date of the event at no additional cost.

3.3 Captioning with Edited Caption Transcript Files

A. The vendor shall provide edited caption transcripts in an accepted file

format. Edited caption transcripts must be in the English language. The

vendor must have a fixed hourly rate for Captioning Services that come with

edited caption transcripts, inclusive of .smi and .docx (or equivalent) file

types.

B. The vendor may be required to provide edited caption transcripts in Spanish,

Vietnamese, Cantonese, Tagalog, and Mandarin, which must be in a required

file format. The vendor must have a fixed hourly rate for Captioning

Services that come with edited caption transcripts, by language inclusive of

.smi and .docx (or equivalent) file types.

C. Edited caption transcripts and files must be completed and delivered to the

JBE within one (1) Business Day per hour of a live real-time captioning; or

within one (1) Business Day per hour of pre-recorded project work. For

example:

Five-hour live real-time captioning event:

5 hour event x 1 Business Day per hour/event = edited caption

transcripts due to JBE in 5 Business Days.

Ten-hour pre-recorded project:

10 hour pre-recorded project x 1 Business Day per hour/project =

edited caption transcripts due to JBE in 10 Business Days.

D. All edited transcripts, inclusive of all file types and languages on the Work

Order shall be provided to JBE, upon request, after the date of the event and

for up to one (1) year at no additional cost.

E. The vendor must be able to produce edited caption transcripts from unedited

caption transcripts for an additional fixed hourly rate, inclusive of .docx (or

equivalent) file type. Requests for this post-event activity will be requested

via Work Order and follow timeframes for pre-recorded work projects.

3.4 The caption transcripts, both edited and unedited, must be provided in the following

professional formats:

5

rev December 2025

Commodity Codes

• NAICS 561492Court Reporting and Stenotype Services

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