COURTS: Judges on the case

The kind of technology needed to simplify proceedings in complex cases does not come cheap. But for very long and costly trials, it does save time and money. There might be financial constraints in many cases about what technology can be used, but this is not the only stumbling block. It is still up to each judge to decide what technology will be allowed in a courtroom for a certain case.
There are several high-profile cases and inquiries at the moment that show how far technology can help when
individual judges embrace technology and fight for funding to make it possible.
But it will need more than a handful of judges to champion the use of new equipment if it is going to become more widely adopted in courtrooms.

The Bloody Sunday inquiry
Competition was fierce to supply the technology for the current inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday in Derry almost 30 years ago. Six organisations bid for the contract towards the end of last year, and the project was won by ICL. The group that submitted the winning proposal had just seven weeks to put everything in place.
ICL became involved in this inquiry because it recently provided the technology for a large inquiry for the Bristol Royal Infirmary. The legal team conducting the Bloody Sunday hearing had specified the technology it required, and ICL’s proposal was based on this specification.
“The inquiry needed on-going support in three key areas,” an ICL spokesman explains. “One was real-time transcription, using Livenotes. Another was a mechanism for evidence display. At the Bloody Sunday inquiry there are two screens on each desk. One is for traditional evidence display, such as scanned documents. The other is a video monitor which uses virtual reality software. This was developed specifically for the inquiry. It allows touch-screen techniques to be used so that while someone is giving evidence, the physical area of Derry as it was at the time of the shootings can be displayed. Witnesses can ‘walk’ through the city and if needed, a still image can be captured as they do so.”
ICL contracted out the task of compiling this virtual technology. Video and stills images of a whole range of vantage points in the city have been gathered and put together in software programmes. The cost of compiling this was kept down because it applied technology that was already being used in universities. “Access to this virtual reality system is a hi-tech aide memoire,” says the spokesman. “Because the events happened a long time ago, it has been a very important innovation.”
The other computer screen on each desk in the inquiry means documentary evidence can be displayed to everyone, which saves a huge amount of time and money.
The costs of the technology used may be high, but the inquiry is taking so much evidence it is estimated it will last 18 months. The experts say that if not for the technology, all the evidence involved could not have been included.
ICL has to deliver technology to several specific requirements. The intention was to make ICL the single point of contact for all the technology. Transcription and related services had to be provided, along with closed circuit TV (CCTV) so that everyone has a view of who is speaking. The sound system for the inquiry venue and linked sites around Derry also had to be set up.
Now that the inquiry is under way, ICL has to provide the operators to deal with the real-time transcripts. It also has to ensure documents can be retrieved from the database and displayed on the desktop computer screens, as soon as they are requested.
In the seven weeks after it won the contract and before the inquiry actually started, ICL had to work incredibly fast to get everything in place. “It helped that the senior project manager, Claire McElduff, and the team had done this before for the Bristol inquiry,” the spokesman says.
The CCTV was the main area that needed fine tuning since the inquiry had been up. As it is voice activated, the camera is programmed to pan in on whoever is speaking. The camera angles needed adjusting when Judge Savill suggested that people could give statements sitting down, and the camera had been set up for people talking while standing.
Judge Savill has been very supportive of the technology used in the inquiry. He participated in the familiarisation programme, run by ICL , as it put the technology in place. The ICL team says the verdict so far is that it makes life much easier for the inquiry members, to have facilities such as annotated transcripts, evidence available on CD-rom and a public transcript available on the internet.
Solicitors and barristers involved in the inquiry are all using laptops in the court, and can be fed transcripts. ICL has standardised all the software, using Windows 2000 for word processing and for back-office functions. “We have provided a standard desktop for all members of the inquiry team. We are updating this as the inquiry proceeds. If a solicitor comes in with a laptop we try to link them to the system, at minimum, we make sure they can be e-mailed,” a representative says.
The inquiry also has a feed to a remote media centre and to two more feeds to other parts of the city. This includes a sound and vision feed to a theatre in Derry, where the public can keep up with what is happening. People are responding and using the facility.