Tim Carmody, Queensland’s chief justice, says: ‘Sometimes matters are transcribed incorrectly or not at all’ since the government outsourced the service to Auscript, forcing judges to go back to audio recordings

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Judges are having to go back and listen to audio recordings of court cases because they do not trust the “often poor” quality of legal transcriptions after the service was outsourced by the Queensland government.



The chief justice, Tim Carmody, said mistakes by Auscript – a Liberal national party donor which won a contract to transcribe hearings in 2012 – were delaying appeal decisions and creating more work for judges.

The judge’s criticism – contained in the supreme court’s annual report 2013-14 tabled in parliament on 19 December – followed state opposition claims that the cost of court transcripts had jumped by 73% after privatisation.

The attorney general, Jarrod Bleijie, told parliament a month before the report that the court of appeal “no longer experiences delays in the production of transcripts”.

Carmody said it was pleasing the courts had experienced no major delays in receiving transcripts for appeal cases, “unlike last year”.

“The quality of the transcripts, however, remains variable, and like last year is often poor,” he said. “Sometimes matters are transcribed incorrectly or not at all. Inappropriate paragraphing is common.

“When the accuracy of a portion of transcript is critical to a ground of appeal, it is often necessary for the judges to check the transcript against the original recording.

“Transcripts of appeal hearings are sometimes delivered outside the timelines time set by Auscript. These manifest transcript problems can delay the timely delivery of judgments.”

Bleijie told parliament in November the service saved taxpayers $3.6m last financial year.

The government has also dismissed any suggestion that $12,000 in donations to the LNP – by Auscript, its chief executive Peter Wyatt and a related company the year it won the contract – played any role amid an “independent, robust and transparent” tender process.

Auscript’s general manager, Kate Gaske, said the company rejected any suggestion that transcripts it provided “are of anything but the highest standard”.

“Many of our personnel worked for the State Reporting Bureau under the previous system, and all our transcribers are highly skilled and regularly assessed for the accuracy of our work,” she said.

“Auscript’s quality assurance systems are accredited to international standards, and we have met or exceeded every accuracy benchmark contained in our contract with [the Department of Justice].”

Gaske said the company was “the recognised world leader in court transcription technology and services” and had “met or exceeded every performance standard for delivery under our contract”.

“We understand that the state government’s decision to implement a more cost-effective transcription service has not pleased everyone, however Auscript is simply focused on delivering great results for Queensland taxpayers and the legal system,” she said.