Correcting court transcripts and judgments

United States: the certified transcript

Under 28 U.S.C. 753(b), each session of a federal court and other designated proceedings are recorded verbatim by shorthand, mechanical means, electronic sound recording or another approved method ¹. All proceedings in criminal cases in open court are recorded, and so are other open court proceedings except where the parties, with the judge's approval, agree to the contrary ¹.

The reporter certifies the original notes or records and files them with the clerk, who keeps them for not less than ten years ¹. A transcript certified by the reporter is deemed prima facie a correct statement of the testimony taken and proceedings had, and only transcripts made from certified records count as official ¹. The original notes and the clerk's copy of the transcript are open to inspection by any person without charge during office hours ¹.

United States: correcting the record on appeal

Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 10(e)(1) provides that if any difference arises about whether the record truly discloses what occurred in the district court, the difference must be submitted to and settled by that court and the record conformed accordingly ². Under Rule 10(e)(2), anything material omitted from or misstated in the record by error or accident may be corrected, for example on stipulation of the parties ².

Where no transcript is available, Rule 10(c) lets the appellant prepare a statement of the evidence from the best available means, including recollection ². The appellee may serve objections within 14 days, and the district court settles and approves the statement ².

United States: redaction is not correction

Redaction removes personal data identifiers. It does not change what was said. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of North Dakota describes the Judicial Conference policy adopted in September 2007 on electronic availability of transcripts ³.

England and Wales: draft and final judgments

Practice Direction 40E governs reserved judgments that a court will hand down in writing ⁴. The court gives a draft judgment to the parties' legal representatives by 4 p.m. on the second working day before hand-down, or at another time the court directs ⁴. The draft is confidential. Its substance may not be disclosed to any other person or used in the public domain before hand-down ⁴.

Proposed corrections to the draft go to the clerk of the judge who prepared it, with a copy to any other party ⁴. After judgment, Civil Procedure Rule 40.12 provides that the court may at any time correct an accidental slip or omission in a judgment or order, and a party may apply for a correction without notice ⁵.

For a quote check, this means a widely shared draft text is not the judgment. Only the judgment handed down, as later corrected under the slip rule, is the court's text ^4,5.

Australia: Federal Court transcripts

The Federal Court of Australia's practice note GPN-ACCS states that copyright in all transcripts belongs to the Commonwealth of Australia ⁶. Subject to the rules and any order of the Court, transcripts cannot be shared between parties or passed to other recipients ⁶. A party or person must not use a recording device to make a transcript or record of evidence or submissions at a hearing, under rule 6.11(3) of the Federal Court Rules ⁶.

Transcripts are bought from the Court's Authorised Transcript Providers, and a party or non-party, including the media, may buy all or part of a transcript, subject to any order or direction of the Court restricting it ⁶.