On November 15, 2022, INL’s Caribbean Anti-Crime Grant, implemented by the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), held the first virtual meeting for the Caribbean Regional Digital Court Recording (CRDCR) committee. The committee was created as a result of an initial in-person CRDCR meeting at the American Association of Electronic Reporters (AAERT) Conference in June 2022. This meeting is the first of a series of quarterly meetings to encourage networking and an exchange of best practices for Digital Court Recording across the region.
A total of 58 persons from 8 countries (The Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia) attended the virtual meeting.
The Trinidad and Tobago Judiciary provided three presentations on Courtroom Management and Speech-To-Text during the meeting. Master Christie-Anne Morris Alleyne, the Court Executive Administrator in Trinidad discussed the fundamentals of speech-to-text. This feature is adding a new dimension to digital court recording and extremely relevant to the region as additional judiciaries start to use the feature. Gail Dean-Jagroop from the Children’s Court and Nicole Douglas-Davidson from the Court Reporting Services Unit discussed best practices on courtroom management for digital court recording. Additionally, Senior Court Reporter Mahalia Currie-Medina conducted a presentation on digital court reporting from a Court Reporter’s perspective. After each presentation, participants were offered the opportunity to ask questions and engage in fruitful discussions.
The overall goal of the CRDCR is to provide a venue for sharing ideas, plans and experiences regarding using and implementing Digital Court Recording in the Caribbean. NCSC will continue to support these quarterly meetings and encourage participants to present on relevant Digital Court Recording topics affecting their judiciaries.
