It might surprise some readers to learn that unlike in the Crown Court proceedings in the Magistrates' Court are not audio recorded.
Instead it is for the Legal Advisor or Court Associate to keep a contemporaneous record of events, but it does not need to be a verbatim account.
Sir Brian Leveson has recommended the introduction of audio recording in part one of his Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, which was published earlier today.
It's a good idea and one I fully endorse.
Audio recording could be implemented relatively quickly, cheaply and easily. It would not require any special legislation, but Sir Brian has recommended the Government pass specific legislation to avoid challenges to the legitimacy of audio recording later down the line.
Audio recording would improve the accuracy of Magistrates' Court records and transparency of Magistrates' Court proceedings.
In Sir Brian's view, audio recording will reduce the number of Magistrates' Court decisions being appealed to the Crown Court. This is because potential appellants, or rather their representatives, will be able to review the record and confirm the merits of any potential appeal before one is lodged.
A concluding anecdote. Probably around a decade ago I remember sitting on an afternoon trial. I don't remember what the trial was about, but in common with most trials I had generated several pages of handwritten notes.
The Legal Advisor was frantically tapping away on the computer, recording the gist of every question put and answer given during the trial. It was his practice to do this using Microsoft Word and he would later cut and paste the text into the case management system.
By the end of the trial time was marching on, so as soon as we'd left the courtroom we ditched our notes in the confidential waste bin, grabbed our coats and headed straight for the door. A few moments later the very flustered looking Legal Advisor burst through the retiring room door, wanting to know if we still had our notes.
It turns out he had accidentally wiped his entire record of the trial, so needed our notes to help rewrite his own. On hearing the notes were in the bin, the Legal Advisor and usher set about desperately trying to retrieve them first through the slot, then by picking the lock.
The Legal Advisor in question, who is now long retired, eventually managed to retrieve our notes, but by the time he'd deciphered and rewritten them he had a very late finish that evening.
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