Disembodied Voices Mark a New Era in the Courts…

I was meeting a friend for lunch today and ended up meeting her in the Four Courts where she was on a jury wait in the Brian Rattigan trial.  Things were running late for lunch as the jury had asked to hear some of the testimony given in the trial during their deliberations.  It’s not an unusual occurrence.  A jury can ask for a recap of any piece of evidence if they feel it will help them come to their decision.

As I stuck my head around the door of the courtroom I could hear an unfamiliar voice speaking.  Normally evidence is read out by the trial judge from the transcript of the trial or from his own notes taken during the evidence the first time round.  For the last few months however the Courts Service have been trialing a new recording system.

It’s been running in Court 1 since the middle of last year but has only recently been introduced into Court 2 as well.  The system runs alongside the transcript made by the stenographer, but will eventually replace them. I gather that a similar system is already running in New Zealand.

Here in Ireland it’s a decidedly high tech innovation – up until a year or so ago even watching CCTV footage meant wheeling in a television that would be positioned opposite the jury and plugged into a video.  We have a more up to date system now but as I say, it’s a pretty recent introduction.

In the courts where the recording is in operation there’s a large red digital clock on the desk in front of the stenographer facing out into the courtroom.  All the principal players, the judge, the barristers and the witnesses speak into microphones that feed into a black box recorder.

Today was the first time I had ever heard the results.  I was surprised at how clear the recording was, almost broadcast quality.  Clearer, thanks to the amplification provided by the microphones, than hearing evidence from someone sitting in front of you in the old somewhat acoustically challenged courtrooms.

It sounded bizarrely like a radio play.  Everyone sat in rapt attention as the drama of that particular piece of evidence was played out once again.  I couldn’t help wondering what Mr Justice Barry White was thinking as his voice filled the courtroom in answer to something the now absent witness had said.  It’s a slightly surreal situation.

Of course recordings are played in trials all the time.  We watch hours of CCTV footage and it’s not unusual to see the videos of an accused persons interviews with the gardai.  But these recordings are all of somewhat dubious quality.  You frequently have to strain to hear the mumbled questions of the gardai off mike in the interview room.

The new digital service provided by Fujitsu is a whole different kettle of fish.  It’s the kind of quality you’d expect from digital and having an audio recording of proceedings will mean no question of human error creeping into transcripts (not that that happens at the moment in any major way).

However, as exciting as all this new technology may be – it really is very, very clear – it’s unlikely to change the journalist’s job of covering court proceedings.  While digital recordings and transcripts will be available for judges and counsel in cases we will have the same chance of getting hold of them as usual (about the same as a snowball in hell).

It also doesn’t have anything to do with the debate about whether or not to allow tv cameras into Irish courts.  It also won’t affect note taking for those of us not fortunate enough to see the transcripts (when you work in the Four Courts you suddenly realise why shorthand is taught in journalism courses).

All it is is part of the modernisation of the court proceedings here – a process that will get another boost when the new criminal court building by the Phoenix Park opens next year.  I love the old Four Courts complex with it’s James Gandon designed courtrooms but the modern kit is quite impressive and even with a structure as old and traditional as the legal profession, time has to move on.