What is a court transcript?
WHAT IS A COURT TRANSCRIPT?
All court hearings are audio recorded and kept safe by the court. When required these recordings are written down on paper for you to read what happened at the hearing (who said what and when). This is called a transcript.
Under rule 27.9 of the family procedure rules all family court hearings in open court are recorded by mechanical means (often digitally).
LINK TO GOVERNMENT WEBSITE FOR RULE 27.9 OF THE FAMILY PROCEDURE RULES.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS RECORDING OF A HEARING?
The court staff are responsible for making the recording. These recordings are done under the direction of the judge. The whole hearing including any judgement (a detailed account of the reasons why the judge made the decision they did) and any talks after the hearing with the judge or within the courtroom are all recorded.
After the hearing, most probably towards the end of the day, the court staff will download the recording of the hearing onto a DVD or cassette tape.
WHEN IS A COURT TRANSCRIPT USUALLY REQUIRED?
An individual will usually ask for a court transcript when they are appealing a court decision. The court transcript will form part of the appeal.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR HOW TO APPEAL A FAMILY COURT DECISION
Journalists and filmmakers can often ask for a transcript for their article or screenplay on a particular case.
IS A JUDGE’S PERMISSION REQUIRED TO MAKE AN APPEAL AND ORDER A TRANSCRIPT?
Yes it is and there are many clauses. Please click on the link below for more information.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR HOW TO APPEAL A FAMILY COURT HEARING.
WHAT IS THE PROCESS FOR GETTING A COURT TRANSCRIPT?
STAGE 1 – Complete form EX107 and send it to the court
If you want a transcript, you must complete and send form EX107 to the court.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR ‘FORM EX107’
There is a fee to send form EX107 to the court. If you are on a low income or on certain benefits, you get the costs of the transcript paid for you. To do this you will need to complete form EX105.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR ‘FORM EX105’
STAGE 2 – The court will send the recording to your chosen transcription company
Once the court receives your form EX107 and payment for a transcript, they will send the audio recording for the hearing to your chosen transcription company who will prepare the transcript and send it to you.
There are 6 transcription companies that provide family court transcripts. They are:
- Ubiqus UK ltd
- Epiq Europe ltd
- eScribers
- Marten Walsh Cherer ltd
- The transcription agency
- Opus 2 International ltd
You will choose the transcription company yourself and write it on form EX107. For information on the type of transcript you need, the costs and which company to use please click on the link below. The guidance notes will give you the contact details for these companies.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT WEBSITE FOR FORM EX107GN – GUIDANCE NOTES
STAGE 3 – The transcription company will send the transcript to the court
There are instances where the transcript can be sent directly to the individual asking for it.
Normally, the transcription company will send the transcript to the court and it will go in front of the judge so they can check if the transcript is accurate. The judge will check the transcript and by law they can:
- Correct spelling mistakes
- Correct punctuation
- Correct minor errors
- Correct phrases that are unclear.
- Fill in inaudible sections of the transcript where someone in the courtroom has coughed.
- Correct garbled transcriptions.
- Add more details on their reasonings for the judgements they have made during the hearing if they feel they need to.
- The judge can further clarify their reasonings so show what the judge made these decisions whether this was conveyed and understood by the litigants or not.
Stage 4 – The court transcript is sent to the individual who ordered it and/or the court where the appeal hearing is being heard.
After the judge has looked over the transcript, it is sent out.
DO YOU HAVE TO ORDER TO WHOLE COURT TRANSCRIPT OR CAN YOU GET PART OF IT?
You can apply for parts of the transcript or for the whole transcript – that is your choice depending on how much of the transcript you need. Court transcripts are costly and the more of it you order, the more money it will cost you.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR APPEAL IF YOU CANNOT GET HOLD OF A COURT TRANSCRIPT ON TIME?
If you are ordering a transcript for an appeal but it has not arrived, you must send in your appellant’s notice (the form used to apply for an appeal) on time. You must inform the court in section 12 of both forms N161 and FP161 that you have applied for a transcript and they will have it in due course.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR HOW TO APPEAL A FAMILY COURT HEARING
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR FORM N161
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR FORM FP161
If you cannot get a transcript, the appeal will go ahead without one and either you or your barrister/solicitor who represented you can forward a detailed note/statement about the court hearing you are appealing. Your ex-partner’s barrister/solicitor could also do this, but you must be cautious if you go down this route. It could cost you money and they may not give the right information that you need for your appeal. You can also ask the court to look at the notes of the court’s legal adviser if your case was heard by a magistrate or the court can look at the judge’s notes.
LINK TO OUR L.I.P HELP GUIDE FOR HOW TO APPEAL A FAMILY COURT DECISION.
WHAT CONCERNS ARE THERE WITH TRANSCRIPTS?
LINK TO WEBSITE FOR PINKTAPE – WHATS IN A JUDGEMENT ANYWAY
The transcription companies state that the transcripts they provide are 95 – 99% accurate.
It is generally believed that a transcript is a completely unadulterated accurate record of what was said at the hearing, warts and all. However, there are concerns:
CONCERN 1 – The recording could have been wrongly transcribed.
Although rare, a transcription company can make a mistake during transcribing the audio recording. They can mishear or mistype.
If there is evidence that a recording has been wrongly transcribed then an individual can make an application to the court to listen to the original recording.
This is allowed under access to audio recordings of proceedings issued by the lord chief justice on 14-02-2014.
CONCERN 2 – A judge can and is able to change the transcript. They can do this unchecked.
A judge is allowed to:
- Tidy up a transcript. Clarify parts of the transcript.
- Add more detail on their reasoning
- Shed light on what they have said.
The judge can do the above three things under rule 29.16 of the family procedure rule. This ruling is also referred to as the slip rule.
This is the rule that is used where a judge can correct a court order or judgement where a mistake, omission, typing error or accidental slip has occurred. If one party to the proceedings has noticed a mistake in a court order they can make an application for correction without notice. Under this rule notice does not need to be given to the other side nor is there a requirement for a hearing so the correction can be made.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT WEBPAGE FOR RULE 29.16 OF THE FAMILY PROCEDURE RULES.
A judge cannot:
- Change their judgement. A judgement is a detailed account of the judge’s reasons why they made the decision they did.
A judge has been shown in the past to:
- Remove words in the transcript that have caused outbursts, have been unfair or the judge has regretted later.
- Alter the transcript to make it an accurate record of what happened at the hearing.
- Alter the transcript to remove anything. unfavourable to the judge
- Revise a transcript and add a new point for their reasoning.
A transcript sometimes, especially if altered, does not fairly show the following:
- The judges tone of how they have said things in the hearing and the impact of this tone on the litigants.
- The pressure and confusion felt by a litigant.
- The level of frustration at the hearing.
- The judges annoyance at a barrister or litigant and how this impacted their decision.
- How a litigant can feel undermined.
- How a judge can get carried away in an argument at the hearing and be biased.
- The judges irritation during the hearing.
- The bullying nature of the hearing.
CONCERN 3 – The recording was not made or has been lost and ‘gone missing’.
There have been instances where the court forgot to record the hearing, the recording failed, or the DVD/cassette has been lost.
It is also known that recordings have gone ‘missing’ when a court sends a recording to the judicial conduct investigations office (JCIO).
CONCERN 4 – The effect on the litigants in the courtroom
A family court hearing can be very traumatising for both parties. However, where one party feels that an injustice has occurred, an appeal is made and a transcript is ordered.
The ‘doctored’ transcript can give a very different impression than what has happened at the actual hearing. In the ‘doctored’ transcript, the judge can show that he was very clear in his or her reasoning but in reality may have spoken in confusing non laymen’s terms and only gave a basic overview about what was happening leaving the litigant confused and upset. When this litigant reads the transcript later they will now feel gaslight, confused and made to feel like a liar. What they thought happened did not. The transcript shows the judge was being very clear but in fact they were not.
You may not see the implication of this so let us use a very simple everyday example. If you inform your daughter at 2pm that you are not cooking dinner then your daughter may become distressed because there is no cooked food at home that evening. However, if the doctored transcripts add that you are not cooking dinner until 5pm later than afternoon then your daughter’s reaction would seem over the top.
Some litigants are adamant that the judge said a particular phrase or said something in a certain way but when they get the transcript it shows otherwise.
WHAT IS THE SLIP RULE?
This is the rule that is used where a judge can correct a court order or judgement where a mistake, omission, typing error or accidental slip has occurred. If one party to the proceedings has noticed a mistake in a court order they can make an application for correction without notice. Under this rule notice does not need to be given to the other side nor is there a requirement for a hearing so the correction can be made.
CAN YOU MAKE YOUR OWN RECORDING OF THE HEARING?
Under section 9 of the contempt of court act 1981 it is prohibited to make your own recording of a hearing unless the judge gives permission to do so.
LINK TO GOVERNMENT WEBSITE FOR SECTION 9 OF THE CONTEMPT OF COURT ACT 1981
CAN ANYONE ALTER THE ACTUAL AUDIO RECORDING?
The actual audio recordings on DVD and/or cassette are locked away at the court. It is said that judges do not know how to find these DVD’s and access them as they do not know the passwords. On top of that a judge would not know how to edit these recordings because they would not have the equipment and know how to do this.
However, the court staff are directed by the judge.
Please note a cassette is more difficult to alter than a digital recording.
WHY ARE THE COURTS GETTING AWAY WITH THIS?
The courts, the staff and judges are fully aware of the following:
- That litigants (whether in person or not) find the whole process of appeal and ordering transcripts very confusing and expensive.
- It is not easy to understand the system.
- The family courts are not used to dealing with individuals who can take on the system.
- The whole legal system protects the judges and in this way protects the whole system.
- A judge may say that they did not give their reasons on the day so added them later.
CAN A JUDGE ALTER A DECISION?
Yes they can and they can do this until the official court order has not been drafted, printed and sent. However, the judge must have solid reasons for doing so.