OCTOBER D87 - Voice For The Defense Online

Appeal by VideotapeKentucky's Amazing Experienceby Justice Jim Brady, Austin Court of AppealsCost of the record on appeal will beslashed 90% or more if Texas adopts theKentucky system of videotaped "statementof facts." Time savings are fantastic aswell. Space savings in our overloadedclerk's offices will be tremendous. Equipmentcosts will pay for itself in a year.Trial judges can have that secretary orbriefing attorney they have always wanted.Imagine having a couple of small VCRcassettes which will contain the entire trialrecord from voir dire to final arguments.State-of-the-art video equipment is beingused in other jurisdictions including Florida,North Carolina, Washington State aswell as in Kentucky.For approximately three years, the trialcourts of Kentucky have experimentedwith videotaping of both jury and non-jurycivil and criminal trials. The record on appealis ready immediately upon completionof the trial and reaching of the verdict bythe fact finder. No delays in waiting forweeks or months for a court reporter's typingof a long fact statement. Savings ofhundreds of dollars per appeal are proofof the value of the new system.Appellate judges instead of pouring overvolunies of trial testimony, simply turn ontheir videotape player, push in a cassette,and hy means of calibrated trial log canview instantly portions of the recorddesired. Your writer, having reviewedseveral cases by this method, echos thestatement of Chief Judge J. WilliamHowerton of the Kentucky Court of Appeals,that "video is here to stay."Every lawyer m Texas has fumed andfussed about delay in obtaining a "Statementof Facts" fmm the busy conrt reporter.Every trial judge has wished he could havean immediate transcription of the testimonyor events which had occurred earlier in thetrial. Every appellate judge has spent hourupon hour with his desk piled high withone to ten volumes of testimony, most ofwhich was not needed at all and did notaffect the outcome of the appeal. All thiswill now be a thing of the past when Texascourts come into the 20th century and followthe lead of the Commonwealth ofKentucky!Texas will soon drown in the flood oflitigation. By the year 1990, new civil andcriminal case filings and appeals will increaseimmensely.According to the Officeof Court Administration's 10th AmualReport, there were 1,200,000 cases pendingin our trial courts at the close of 1986.district and County Courts-At-Law disposedof 1,174,512 cases in 1986, ofwhich nearly 7,600 wereappealed. The 14Texas Courts of Appeal handled nearly8200 cases last year, over 102 per justice!The Texas Supreme Court kept pace withsome 2,160 dispositions, and stillhad some350 appfications for writ of error pendingat the end of 1986.It doesn't take a degree in highermathematics to realize that by the year2000, Texas may have to double the numberof trial and appellate courts just to keepeven with the litigation explosion. Use oftoday's technology is the only hope wehave to solve this growing problem. Criminalcase filings have shot up as much as37% in some Texas counties includingJefferson and Nueces. San Antonio had a25% increase in criminal cases filed in1986, with other major metropolitan areasnot far behind.Presently our 374 district courts ofTexas handle an average of 1,625 cases perjudge per year! The money saved by theuse of videotape would be sufficient foreach district court in the State to haveeither a full-time secretary of briefing attorney,or both. The recent videotape"Justice for Justice" produced by the StateBar of Texas, compels every lawyer andjudge in Texas to take a close hard lookat the Kentucky experience. As stated byJustice Robert M. Campbell of the TexasSupreme Court, the trial courts in Texasare operating just like they did 150 yearsago, with one judge, one court reporter andone bailiff. Modern state-of-the-art equipmentsuch as videotape, audio recordings,or the CAT system (computerized augmentedtranscription), although available.are not used. As Justice Campbell pointsout, less than one-third of one percent ofour entire state budget goes to the thirdbranch of government, our judicial system!Such a scandal is staggering. As ChiefJustice John Hill stated: 'Tf Texas citizensknew about these facts, they would rise upand do something about it before it is toolate."In addition to all the statistics publishedby the Office of Court Administration inits fiscal 1986 report, the 950 Justice of thePeace courts handled over a million and36 VOICE for tlte Defense 1 October 1987