Mission
To promote and facilitate the administration of justice through the professional recording of all sittings of the Supreme and National Courts and the provision of accurate, timely and cost effective verbatim transcripts of those proceedings.
Vision
- To produce the official certified transcripts of Supreme and National Court proceedings through uncompromising faithfulness to the accuracy and integrity of the recording and transcription processes.
- To provide members of the judiciary, legal profession, litigants and the general public with a professional Court Reporting Service rendering products and services characterised by reliability and world best practice.
- Empowering national staff to acquire skills and attain levels of excellence in personal development.
The Court Reporting Service was established in 1995 under the National Court Rules. The Court maintains its own Court Reporting Service and the recording of Court sessions commenced in 1995 using the Analog system and in 2012 was replaced with a Digital system.
The effective operation of the Court Reporting Service is integral to the successful operation of the Papua New Guinea Justice system. The Supreme and National Courts are superior courts of record. That is, the proceedings before those courts are transparent and accountable by virtue of an objective, verbatim transcript of proceedings.
Long after the tabling in Parliament of reports from Commissions of Inquiry the transcript continues to provide the basis for the prosecution of wrongdoers and the implementation of reforms.
Consequently, for the furtherance of good governance, public confidence in the judiciary, faith in the administration of justice, the effective operation of a professional court reporting service is critically important.
Court Reporting Officers possess a raft of skills focused on and specifically dedicated to the achievement of specialised tasks. These involve:
- the operation of a range of recording equipment custom designed to meet the requirements of court reporting;
- the monitoring of proceedings in such a way that not only is every word captured but that individual speakers are identified each time they speak, peculiar names and specialist terminology are obtained and a recording of the highest audio quality achieved;
- the preparation within strict time limits of a verbatim, accurate transcripts of those monitored proceedings;
- the travelling on circuit to various locations throughout the country with judges and lawyers and being professional in their conduct to fulfil their duties and responsibilities in an unsupervised environment; and
- the communication and inter-relationship with judges, lawyers and members of the public in respect of the policies of the court reporting service.
Professional court reporters are people who have a grasp of the significant role they play in the effective administrative of justice in Papua New Guinea.
Qualified technical officers also play a vital role in the maintenance and service of all recording equipment throughout the country.
The database section of the service inputs and archives matters of all sittings of the Supreme and National Courts throughout the country, including matters dealt with in non-residential locations.
The CRS Charter which was implemented in April 2005 continues to guide the service in facilitating the provision of transcripts to their Honours, lawyers, parties to the proceedings and the public. Fees apply for services rendered.
Organisation
The Court Reporting Service (CRS) division consists of 4 sections, namely: senior CRS management, court reporting officers, technical, database/clerical.
The courts in the regions are serviced by court reporting officers who monitor all proceedings in their respective regions. Preparation of all transcripts are done in Waigani. Technical officers maintain and service all recording equipment throughout the country.