by Keith Hunt

Maidstone Crown Court has today switched to a new digital system of recording cases, which sees two full-time stenographers and 20 part-time loggers being replaced by machines.

The Ministry of Justice system, known as DART (Digital Audio Recording Technology), is being introduced at all crown courts across the country. Canterbury Crown Court will go "live" on March 5.

It means all courtroom proceedings will be put on digital files instead of being taken down by stenographers or CAT (Computer Aided Transcription) writers or put onto tape recorders.

Pat Ross, a stenographer at Maidstone for 19 years, said: "I believe the quality of transcripts could suffer under the new system as they will not be able to check correct spellings of names and authorities quoted, as well as difficult medical terms."

Pat, employed by London-based Marten Walsh Cherer, added: "When I started training I learnt shorthand and reached 200 words a minute. Then they decided they wanted to go over to CAT and we learnt to use the machine and get our speed up. Now that has become defunct."

Jean Welfare, a CAT writer at Maidstone for 16-and-a-half years, said: "I will miss it terribly. It is a hard job. You have to learn to concentrate.

"We could put a transcription on computer and email it straight away. They say the new system is progress, but someone is still going to have to prepare it and type it like we do now."

Senior Judge Jeremy Carey said: "The introduction of DART means the end of court shorthand writers and those who log the court tapes as they record court proceedings.

"From a personal point this is very sad because the judges and barristers at Maidstone Crown Court have received huge support and assistance over very many years from those highly skilled staff. We will miss them.

"The future is uncertain. I must not be a Luddite. We must embrace, as best we can, that which is now being provided and make it work as best we can.

"That is something we have no choice about - but would that we did not have to say goodbye to our shorthand writers."

Lawyer Tony Ventham descibed the loss of the old system as "a tragedy".