New Consultation on Twitter in Courtrooms

BILETA has been coordinating responses to consultations of law, technology and IT with the assistance of the SCRIPT centre at the University of Edinburgh (big-up to our newest exec member, Abbe Brown, for rejuvenating this!).

Recently, the Judicial Office for England and Wales has issued a consultation paper on the use of live, text-based communications from court for the purposes of fair and accurate reporting.

The consultation follows the publication of the Lord Chief Justice’s Interim Practice Guidance on live, text-based communications from court on 20 December 2010.

The consultation opens on 7 February 2011 and closes on 4 May 2011.

I’ll be assisting with collating opinions and putting together a response on behalf of BILETA,  so please get in touch if you have any comments!  There are six consultation questions, taken from this document, which are:

1. Is there a legitimate demand for live, text‐based communications to be used from the courtroom?
2. Under what circumstances should live, text‐based communications be permitted from the courtroom?
3. Are there any other risks which derive from the use of live, text‐based
   communications from court?
4. How should the courts approach with the different risks to proceedings posed by different platforms for live, text‐based communications from court?
5. How should permitting the use of live, text‐based communications from court be reconciled with the prohibition against the use of mobile telephones in court?
6. Should the use of live, text‐based communications from court be principally for the use of the media? How should the media be defined? Should persons other than the accredited media be permitted to engage in live, text‐based communications from court?