'Sick' reporters upset Supreme Court
Published:Thursday | August 12, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Court proceedings were disrupted yesterday because some of the court reporters attached to the Supreme Court staged a sick-out to protest Government's delay in providing them with necessary equipment and training.
The court reporters are responsible for taking verbatim notes of court proceedings.
The sick-out also affected the coroner's inquest being held into the fatal shooting of five men in Tivoli Gardens, west Kingston, in 2008 because no court reporter turned up. The men were allegedly shot by members of the security forces.
Officials from the Ministry of Justice are to meet with the court reporters today.
A court reporter explained that they were frustrated with the Goverment's tardiness in providing sufficient computers and giving them adequate pay for the volume of work they have to do.
"There is a complement of 42 court reporters and there are only five laptop computers to assist with real-time reporting, and some court reporters have no desktop computers," one court reporter explained.
Over the years, the court reporters have been responsible for taking notes of evidence in the circuit courts, but they say they are now required to take notes of evidence in the civil courts.
A system has been put in place for real-time reporting but some of the court reporters say not all of them are trained to do that. They explained that real-time took time to edit and sometimes the judges need the notes immediately.
Real-time reporting is only available at the Home Circuit Court in Kingston, and the court reporters say when they go to the other circuit courts they have to spend time transcribing those notes when they return to the Supreme Court. "This poses a difficulty because when we return to the Supreme Court we are assigned to real-time court and so the transcripts from the rural circuit courts are left lagging," a court reporter said.