Do courts withhold hearing transcripts from parties anywhere?
<p>Unlike the old days when court hearings were stenotyped, these days they just make audio recordings. Later those may be typed back to transcripts.</p>
<p>Anywhere in the world, do parties to court hearings have <em>no</em> absolute right to access those transcripts (or recordings), subject to any fee that may be required to cover the costs of typing them back? Can any court ever require parties to provide reasons why they want the transcripts, and decide whether to provide them — instead of providing them just on request?</p>
<p>(Any common law jurisdiction).</p>

<p><strong>Anywhere in the world, do parties to court hearings have <em>no</em> absolute right to access those transcripts (or recordings)?</strong></p>
<p>I have not checked every common law jurisdiction but I suspect that as all (?) such courts have their own inherent powers to make directions the answer is probably: <strong>NO</strong>.</p>
<p>That said, a <em>close-but-no-cigar</em> example may be found at <a href="https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part79#IDA5Z0IC" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Rule 79.30</a> of the Civil Procedure Rules concerning terrorist financing proceedings in <a href="/questions/tagged/england-and-wales" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;england-and-wales&#39;" rel="tag">england-and-wales</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Unless the court directs otherwise</strong>, rule 5.4 (Register of Claims), rule 5.4B (Supply of documents from court records – a party) and rule 5.4C (Supply of documents from court records –a non-party) <strong>do not apply</strong> to any proceedings to which Section 2 or 3 of this Part applies or to any document relating to such proceedings.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&quot;<em>Sections 2 and 3 of this Part</em>&quot; refers to applications to set aside financial restrictions and appeals against being designated as being linked to terrorism.</p>
<p>The relevant cited Rules are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>5.4</strong></p>
<p>(1) A court or court office may keep a publicly accessible register of claims which have been issued out of that court or court office.</p>
<p>(2) <strong>Any person</strong> who pays the prescribed fee may, during office hours, search any available register of claims.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>5.4B</strong></p>
<p>(1) <strong>A party to proceedings</strong> may, unless the court orders otherwise, obtain from the records of the court a copy of any document listed in paragraph 4.2A of Practice Direction 5A.</p>
<p>(2) A party to proceedings may, if the court gives permission, obtain from the records of the court a copy of any other document filed by a party or communication between the court and a party or another person.</p>
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
<p>Anywhere in the world, do parties to court hearings have no absolute
right to access those transcripts (or recordings), subject to any fee
that may be required to cover the costs of typing them back? Can any
court ever require parties to provide reasons why they want the
transcripts, and decide whether to provide them — instead of providing
them just on request?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>In common law countries, courts are divided between &quot;courts of record&quot; for which there is generally a right to a transcript (possibly subject to non-disclosure rules or limited access rules if the proceedings themselves are not public as in juvenile courts in the U.S. or the U.S. FISA court), and &quot;courts not of record&quot;, in which any transcript is prepared for purposes other than an appeal.</p>
<p>Courts not of record typically are limited to petty criminal offenses and to civil cases with a small amount in controversy that does not involve title to real property. A very large share of their docket typically consists of accepting guilty pleas and entering default judgments in civil cases.</p>
<p>Even if proceedings of a court not of record are audio or video records, for example, in security camera footage, or for the convenience of the judge, there would be no right to access those recordings except for purposes such as cases where a crime is committed rather than merely tried, in the courtroom (e.g. a recent case in India where someone impersonating a lawyer from a rival gang murdered a criminal defendant in the courtroom).</p>
<p>In courts not of record, appeals are by trial de novo, rather than being based upon the trial court record, so there is no need to maintain an official transcript.</p>

<p>In the United Kingdom, in some unusual circumstances, a court or tribunal can exclude a party and their representatives from part of the hearing. This is usually where evidence is to be heard which would harm national security if it became public and the interests of the excluded party are typically represented by a &quot;special advocate&quot;.</p>
<p>Where a party is excluded in these circumstances the excluded party cannot, of course, obtain a transcript of the part of the hearing they were excluded from.</p>

<p><a href="/questions/tagged/new-zealand" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;new-zealand&#39;" rel="tag">new-zealand</a></p>
<p>It appears that in NZ courts of record there is no absolute right for parties to obtain hearing transcripts.</p>
<p>Upon a party requesting their hearing transcript, judges will ask to specify reasons, and may decline.</p>
<p>Eleven years after the government <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/%E2%80%98real-time%E2%80%99-court-transcribing-launched" rel="nofollow noreferrer">launched</a> its virtually real-time National Transcription Service, in <a href="https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/2018/nqml.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Nuku v R</em></a>, the applicant requested his transcript &quot;for his own records and to assist him in his research and studies&quot;. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Winkelmann" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Winkelmann J</a> &quot;did not see the reasons advanced by the applicant as warranting a direction that a transcript be <strong>prepared</strong>&quot;.<br><sub>(emphasis added)</sub></p>

common-law rules-of-court court-records