A lightning strike destroyed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of court equipment during a ferocious storm.

Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons revealed in Supreme Court One yesterday that the strike on Tuesday, July 25 may have taken out as much as $250,000 worth of equipment.

?Everything was burned,? she said. The judge was concerned that a recording made in Magistrates? Court a month earlier ? which was needed for an appeal hearing over which she was presiding ? could have been lost.

But Frank Vazquez, information technology officer for the judiciary, said last night: ?There was no evidence lost whatsoever.?

Mr. Vazquez said he was still assessing the extent of the damage and hoped that much of the cost could be recouped through an insurance claim, to minimise the impact on taxpayers.

?The buildings of the Supreme Court and the judiciary were hit,? he said.

?We took a strike to the Registry, to the Magistrates? Court and the Supreme Court at Sessions House. We have taken damage to some of the systems but the majority of the systems are now fully operational. All of the magistrates? courts were back up and running by 9.45 a.m. the next morning.

?We have the Court Smart digital recording system in all the court rooms of the Supreme Court dealing with criminal proceedings. It took some damage but is now working.?

He said much of the equipment had been in service for years and was due to be replaced:?If there is a silver lining to it ... there was no information whatsoever lost, nobody was injured and the equipment that was damaged we had already discussed plans to replace it. It could have been much, much worse.?

Mr. Vazquez said the lightning strike was ?non-dramatic? and in many cases computers simply lost their connection to the network.

?The Chief Justice was in Court Three and Court One was in session but I didn?t hear anybody scream in terror.

?It?s more that the lights flickered and we realised we had to go back to paper for a little while.?

He said plans were already in place to ensure the same thing didn?t happen again, including installing surge suppressers to protect the judiciary?s computer network.