The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas judiciary officially relaunched its digital court reporting system on Friday.

During a ceremony to mark the system’s relaunch, Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder said the digital platform is extremely beneficial because it increases the court's reporting capacity so matters can move through the justice system more quickly.

“We have 29 court reporters. They have not been an easy resource to secure in The Bahamas,” he said.

“Our reality, therefore, has been that due to the limited numbers of court reporters, there has been no court reporting in the Magistrate’s Court except in special circumstances and civil court reporters are accommodated only where there is availability. "

“Additionally, because of the scarcity, there are understandably delays on getting transcripts returned to judicial officers and to the appellate court.”

But, with the FTR system, Justice Winder said some of the judiciary’s needs will finally be addressed.

“In the age of transparency and accountability an accurate record of the proceedings before the court ought to be a right not a matter of chance,” the chief justice added.

“Whether for use on appeal, or for judicial officers deliberating on the evidence presented or some submissions made by counsel, the judge is better aided by the verbatim account rather than his handwritten summary of the proceedings taken as the matter progressed.”

The digital system was first rolled out in the courts in 2015 but was met with “limited success.”

Justice Winder said there were lessons learned from that experience.

“We have been deliberate in this relaunch,” he continued.

“For the past two weeks, experts have been in our courts in New Providence, Grand Bahama and Abaco conducting training for staff and judicial officers on the operation of the digital court reporting system. There's also been training with the Bar association."

And according to Justice Winder, “all but five civil courts” have been outfitted with the equipment needed to support the digital system.

Some of the aspects of the system include a speech to text feature, among other things.

“We hope that by the end of the summer all of our courts will have the capacity to capture an audio record of the proceedings,” the chief justice added.

“None of this would be possible without the support of our friends and partners at the United States Embassy in Nassau through the Caribbean Anti-Crime Programme … The partnership and support involved not only the technical support, in the outfitting of many of the courts with the FTR systems, but as indicated it involved the provision of expert advice and a significant training component.”

On Friday, Justice Winder also foreshadowed the coming of the long-awaited bail management system which he said is in the final stages of implementation.