“The situation’s really pretty bad”
A court reporter has taken to Twitter to document his frustration over technophobe lawyers causing court delays and other irritations stemming from the under-funded judicial system.
Gareth Davies, who is the Croydon Advertiser’s “chief reporter”, was in attendance at his local court this morning — and things didn’t go well.
Davies opened his social media rant earlier today by relaying a discussion he participated in about what exactly a “kilobyte” was.
Just sat in room of judges, police officers and lawyers, none sure what a kilobyte is. Discussion lasted 20 mins with no firm conclusion
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
With the top legal minds in attendance struggling to come to any firm conclusion, Davies began to lose patience.
At one stage it said a megabyte = 1 million kilobytes. No one said anything
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
Davies then informed his followers that the case he was meant to be reporting on would be delayed for at least a month due to email troubles. He blamed law firm IT for this.
Then one side was granted a postponement of at least a month because they said they weren't able to open an email
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
Why? Because solicitor didn't have Outlook on her computer
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
This is why I don't like court reporting of any kind. A whole morning wasted because a legal firm's computers are 'a bit simple'
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
The possibly soon to be ex-court reporter then had to stop himself from yelling out from the public gallery in frustration at the events unfolding before him.
I just sat at the back of court trying to resist shouting 'JUST USE SOMEONE ELSE'S COMPUTER!'
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
It appears that this isn’t the first time this has happened to Davies.
The number of delayed hearings caused by small technical issues, or people not sending each other things on time, is mind boggling
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
The journalist went on in a series of further tweets to argue that these delays make court reporting at “understaffed local papers” virtually impossible. But he was keen to point out that court staff are not always to blame.
Not having a go at court staff because cuts are a really big factor
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
Citing recent budget cuts to Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service, Davies raised concerns about the maintenance of “open justice”.
But the issues at papers and the problems at court do not lead to open justice
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016
Giving his Twitter timeline a much needed break, Davies concluded:
I could go on (and on) but I'll give it a rest for now. To summarise: the situation's really pretty bad
— Gareth Davies (@Gareth_Davies09) January 27, 2016