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Court stenographers to be replaced with digital recording

Sunday 8 May 2011 at 8:18 am | In News | Post Comment

The Digital Audio Recording Transcription and Storage (Darts) will begin rollout in June 2011 and finish in March 2012 at each of the 97 Crown and combined court sites in England and Wales.

Darts has been piloted at seven Crown Court sites since October 2009, the system offers clear audio quality and backup, easy playback and a faster transcription service.

While Darts was being extensively tested, the impact on the roles of the clerks and ushers was assessed. Evaluation showed the system to be popular with court staff and the impact of Darts on staff time to be minimal compared to realisation of financial benefit for HMCTS.

Reported in Law Gazette