"I have purchased two laptops to do the government work," says Rebecca Broderick, a court reporter. "That makes two of us," her colleague Tanya Chung-Bailey adds during an interview with The Gleaner.

The two enthusiastic steno-graphers say they purchased the computers to keep current with their work. "You still have persons going the extra mile," Broderick asserts.

Immediate access

Last year at the beginning of the Michelmas term, four criminal courtrooms at the Supreme Court were equipped with real-time transcription technology. This facilitates immediate access by the judges to court reporters' notes of evidence as the case proceeds. There are 56 courthouses across the island.

With the introduction of the real -time reporting technology, judges no longer take notes by hand in the Supreme Court. This speeds up the taking of evidence, the settling of questions, the checking of previous testimony and enables a judge to make summations quickly.

Laptop request

The court reporters are requesting that the justice ministry assign a laptop to each stenographer. "I think if they put out the effort and assign individuals with laptops, when they go to the country they can edit what they are doing while on circuit, and that would lessen the workload so that when they come in (to Kingston), it's just a matter of proofreading, printing, collating and sending off," Broderick explains.

Broderick says the new system should help to reduce the backlog of cases in the courts. "Cases are going off much faster than before," she says.

There are some 45 court reporters servicing the entire justice system.