Judiciary on hunt for digital answer to better transcripts

By ADAM GIFFORD

The Ministry of Justice wants to put a digital evidence recording and transcription system in every courtroom in the country.

It has asked for expressions of interest from firms which could sell, integrate and support such a system.

Project manager Raymond de Moulin said the ministry wanted to complete the business case by the end of next year and secure funding early in the new year.

The Government has already approved the project in principle and set aside $30 million in the budget for evidence recording systems.

"Transcription services are something the judiciary wants," de Moulin said.

"The traditional transcription system is relatively low quality - people abbreviate a lot so they can keep up, and the judges want a running text which a normal jury and expert witnesses can read.

"The judiciary is also looking for a more natural flow of witness statements, where people can talk at normal pace. The transcription is currently the bottleneck."

About 50 courtrooms, including those in the High Court at Auckland, are already set up for digital audio technology. These will be brought into line with whatever system is chosen.

The project envisages making digital recording and transcription available in at least 37 additional courtrooms in the high and district courts, seven Maori Land Court courtrooms.

It also wants 14 mobile recording units for Maori Land Court sessions and administrative tribunals and authorities, where transcription can be done after hearings finish.

De Moulin said the recordings would be put directly onto hard disc, and could be burned off later to CD or DVD for archiving.

"For the mobile units, we envisage something which could work off a laptop," he said.

The system will be completely separate to the courts' public address systems, although it could share microphones.

Sound files will be sent to transcription centres on the same network, and the finished Microsoft Word pages will be printed out in the courtroom as they are completed, or sent in email form to the presiding judge.

For some trials, the transmissions may be encrypted before they are sent.

The plans allow for the possibility that transcription could be outsourced to some remote spot, like Palmerston North or Bangalore.