Help...want Trial Transcript

[naina]

Hi,
This forum looks quite helpful. Hope that it gives me some answers too. thanks.

I have been trying to get hold of the transcript of a case. I was a rape victime in this case and the rapist/abuser was convicted and sentenced for 9 years. He has completed his sentence and now he is out.
I gave my avidence but after that i was unable to sit in court to hear the rest of the trial. Now i want to read the script but i am not getting anywhere.
I asked the old Bailey (where this case was heard) and they told me that it will cost ?180 or more per hour to transcribe it from tapes. Later i contacted the appeal court (because he appealed that was rejected). I was told by someone that whatever is transcribed already would cost less. Just photocopy costs. So i asked the appeal court and they sent me some parts of the case. Not the one i wanted. They said that whatever they have they have sent. (charged money for that, not a lot though)
I am sure there is more already transcribed but no one is giving me any information about thta.
One lady (from office in court) told me that the tapes are destroyed after some time.
I cannot believe that. Is it true?
I thought that it is public record and it is kept for ever. Part of history.
After all many cases are available from public record office. I asked them too. They say that they cannot keep recent cases, just old.
This is all very confusing. Can someone please tell me how one can get hold of these scripts. Do victims have to pay this kind of money?
If all this is public record........well what kind of public record is it......public doesn't have any access then.
and is it true that these records are destroyed after a certain period. The case I am talking about is not more that 10 years ago.
thanks

[Ashley]

Hello Naina,

Actual transcripts of trials are not made as a matter of course. They are made available, on payment, to anyone requesting them from the Official Court Recorders, who are a private company, Smith Bernal Ltd being one of the biggest.

Trials are recorded on tape or by a stenographer, they remain in that form until someone asks for as transcript of whole or part of a trial. The cost is generally per sheet, you pay for the amount of pages transcribed.

I do not know what the destruction policy is but I would have to say it would be a substantial period of time.

The limited trial transcripts you got from the Court of Appeal would likely be what the defence obtained to support the basis for the appeal. For instance if an appeal was based on some misdirection in the judges summing-up, the Court would want to see a transcript of it.

The short answer to your question is that you quote the trial reference number to the Official Court Recorders (you can find out who they are from the Court) and ask them for an estimate of what you want........it isn't cheap.

[diana_holbourn]

Is there a possibility that she could get hold of the tapes if it was recorded?

[Ashley]

Good point, I don't know. If Naina were to contact the recorders it is a question she could ask,

[val lavender]

Hi Naina

the last set of trial transcripts that I obtained, from a company called Barnett Linton, cost ?110 per hour plus Vat, a two and a half day trial cost ?2326.50.

If the trial has been previously transcribed it would cost 25p per page as the hard work has been done.

I do not know if the tapes will be released to you, but I presume there would be a copying charge in this instance as well.

I think that tapes are only kept for five years from the date of the last legal activety relatiing to the trial . This would be simple enough to check by phoning the transcibing company concerned.

I hope this is of some help

Regards

Val

[naina]

Thanks a lot - very helpful. thanks

[val lavender]

Hi Naina

I did a bit of checking for you with Barnet Linton. They tell me the following:

Tapes are kept for five years and then disposed of as the need for space arises, this means that tapes may sometimes be kept longer than five years but there is no guarantee.

The audio recording system used to record trials uses four microphones and runs at a different spead to conventional tape recorders. This means that proper playback cannot be achieved unless a court recording playback deck is used

I hope that this information is of use to you

Regards


Val