Open Justice: Exorbitant court transcripts ‘a travesty of justice’
source: The Justice Gap
published: 29 April 2025
Image Credit: Jack Moreh at www.FreeRangeStock.com
Sir David Davis has called the prohibitive cost of court transcripts ‘a travesty of justice‘ and made the case for them to be freely available as they are in some US states.
The former conservative minister who has been campaigning on behalf of Lucy Letby challenged the justice secretary Shabana Mahmood over an issue that has been highlighted by miscarriages of justice campaigners for years – see, for example the 2017 Open Justice charter to which the Justice Gap was a signatory and which featured in PROOF 2.
"When I asked for a transcript for a major trial recently Manchester Crown Court told me it was £100,000 – when I pressed them it went down to £9000, but it’s still way beyond the reach of most people,’ said Sir David, who was talking about his experience with the Letby trial.
"This is a travesty of justice.’"The Conservative MP went on to say; "other countries including American states have free transcripts available now. When is she going to sort this out?" he asked.
Shabana Mahmood said that the government was looking at introducing AI technology to provide a transcription service. "We hope to be able to find a model that gives us the requisite level of accuracy and the speed to be able to publish transcripts and to do so accurately."
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