equipment by the end of the year.

Government is set to spend more than $100,000 on the latest recording equipment, which will be installed in the three Supreme Courts, Family Court and two of the Island's three Magistrate's Courts.

The announcement comes following calls from the legal community that current court reporting facilities are out of date.

Presently trial judges and magistrates are expected to make longhand notes of all proceedings during a case, a process which many argue causes unnecessary delays.

In last week's Royal Gazette , Crown counsel Patrick Doherty said judges were far too busy with other, more important tasks to be expected to also take notes of proceedings.

Mr. Doherty made his remarks after an appeal by the Attorney General on a verdict which hinged on the judge's notes was thrown out.

But a number of other verdicts have been overturned on appeal in recent months after it was ruled that proceedings had not been recorded correctly by the trial judge.

Yesterday it was revealed that tenders for the latest equipment are expected to go out next week, after a committee, established under the last Government, examined if the introduction of new equipment was viable.

That means new recording devices should be up and running by the end of the summer.

Ministry of Development and Opportunity officer Kent deGeer said: "It's a top priority of the Government.

"We did some work determining what we're looking for court reporting. We have prepared a document which the Chief Justice agreed with last week and it's now with the Computer Systems and Services department and they will be putting it out to tender.

"We have made a list of potential suppliers so we will now be going out to about half a dozen or more and that process takes about three weeks to a month to allow them to get back to us.

"Then there will probably be a committee that will look at all the alternative packages and finally we're in the modern era.

"The recording equipment will be digital rather than normal tape and we will need people to transcribe. The tape will be sequential. It's very difficult with normal tape to go to a specific piece of evidence.'' Once a shortlist has been drafted up those selected will be invited to carry out a practical demonstration of their equipment in the US. Mr. deGeer said that Bermudian firms will be invited to apply.

Last night Senior Magistrate Will Francis welcomed the news.

"I have been saying what a lot of other people have been saying, particularly trial judges, that the system needs updating.

"This will speed up the whole process. Trials will certainly be faster and it will also mean getting papers ready for appeals will be quicker.

"Like a lot of people, I have terrible handwriting when I am writing cases down quickly and the clerk then takes a lot of time trying to decipher what I have written down.

"All round, justice will be better served. There's less room for human error.

Often you get appeals where a lawyer will claim that the judge didn't write something down correctly, or failed to write this or that.

"I am sure that everybody involved in trials will very much welcome this.''