Permission Given For Court Note-taking

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32315, 5 June 1970, Page 14

Permission Given For Court Note-taking

A university student who was ejected by a police sergeant from the Magistrate’s Court on May 4 because he was taking notes took longhand notes during the hearing of the same case on Wednesday and the delivery of the reserved decision on it yesterday.

On this occasion, however, ' be first obtained permission from the presiding Magistrate, Mr H. J. Evans, S.M. He sat at the end of a long i table provided for newspaper and radio reporters. In a letter to the editor of “The Press,” published on May 12, the student, Mr J. N. Finn, protested against the action of the police in removing him from the courtroom for taking notes when eight anti-Vietnam War demonstrators appeared for remand on charges of wilful trespass. In reply to his letter, the officer in charge of the Christchurch Police District, (Chief Superintendent G. S. Austing) said it was established practice that notes should not be taken in the Magistrate’s Court without express permission of the magistrate. Mr Finn, a member of the Student Christian Movement, said yesterday that the Magistrate readily gave permission for him to take notes when he applied on Wednesday. He said that be told the Magistrate he had been asked to write an article on the case for the University of

Canterbury student publication, “Canta.” He said that some of the reasons given him by a Court official for insistence on permission first being obtained were invalid so far as they applied to him on the first occasion, but he could see the logic of others. One of the reasons he had been given was that the acoustics of the courtroom were not good and he might not hear all that was said. “I was actually sitting nearer the defendants than the Magistrate or the Court reporters, and could probably hear a lot better than any of them,” he said. He agreed that unrestricted note-taking could lead to difficulties on occasions when names or parts of the evidence were suppressed. He said there was nothing, however, to prevent members of the public from learning the names or hearing the ■ evidence if they were present in Court. The attitude of Christchurch Magistrates to the taking of notes in Court has : not been one of blanket refusal. Permission may be i given, provided the Magis- ' trate knows the purpose for

which the notes are being taken.

Students occasionally take notes in the course of their studies after having obtained permission. As members of the public they are not allowed to stand up in Court and address the Bench unless they are a party to the proceedings, so they generally ask the registrar to refer their application to the Mag istrate before the Court sits When a court is open tothe public any member of the public is entitled to be present. No restriction is imposed except when their behaviour interferes with the orderly conduct of the Court, or with the administration of justice. There is no specific statutory authority or regulation which gives a magistrate power to forbid note-taking, but by virtue of his office he has authority to control proceedings in his Court and prohibit the doing of any act which could interfere with the proper administration of justice. For this reason, everything that happens in the courtroom must be subject to his direction. If anybody wants to take notes, the Magistrate expects to know why. If the reason is fair and reasonable, permission will be given. Unless the proceedings are controlled in this way notes, or photographs, could be taken and used outside the ordinary range of Court proceed, ings. Because of this it is important that Magistrate? have the power to stop notetaking at source. Excluded Witnesses ;■ Notes taken by membors of the public could be given to witnesses who have been excluded from part of the hearing for the very purpose of ensuring that their testimony is given without their being influenced by the evidence of others. They could also be used as a means of intimidating witnesses. Methods of note-taking could, in some instances, give rise to objections because of noise or prominence of the recording equipment. On the other hand, hand-written notes may give only an incomplete record and could he jused improperly for later proceedings.