Going back to what RPK said about the Court of Public Opinion, ordinarily, it is normal that public opinion rests on what they hear and see. What they hear and see is usually what they get from the news and news are usually selective. Proof, will be looked at later, if ever.
Look at comments on trials, allegations, gossips, etc. What matters now? Productivity, good results, or good yummy stories...
Today, two reports in The Star at page F30 indicate positive results. Judging the recording system and Zaki makes sense of chaos in filing room by SHAILA KOSHY. Check them out.
Quoting JUDGING THE RECORDING SYSTEM
"In January last year, the Government had handed the management of the e-court system – covering case management, court recording and transcription (CRT) and an information technology infrastructure – to former Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim. But very little has been heard since then of the e-court pilot.
This January, new Chief Justice Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Mohamed tasked new Court of Appeal President Justice Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi and new Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff with the job of shaping up the administration of the courts in the peninsular.
Their primary target is to reduce complaints about missing court files, poor counter service, long waits for trial/appeal dates, long trials and even longer waits for grounds of judgment.
Justice Abdul Hamid approved a pilot project for a recording and real-time transcription service in two courtrooms in the Jalan Duta Court Complex and directed Justice Zaki to report on the viability of the new and existing systems.
When the second largest court complex in the world opened on May 3, 2007, it was equipped with two court recording and transcription (CRT) systems – an analogue recording system in 65 courtrooms and a digital recording system in nine courts. Unfortunately, they were not widely used, say High Court Justices Datuk T.S. Nathan and Datuk Ramly Ali.
However, with the CJ’s interest in utilising CRT to speed up commercial and civil hearings coupled with Justice Zaki’s drive, things are moving again.
According to Justices Nathan and Ramly, the digital recording systems work the best.
“There is a consensus that we abandon the analogue system because it is too unwieldy and problematic,” says Justice Nathan.
Not one to mince his words, Justice Zaki apparently told the recent Conference of Judges that the “analogue system should be thrown out the window”.
Bar Council secretary Lim Chee Wee suggests it be sold as scrap so the taxpayers’ money is not wasted.
As for the digital system, one provides delayed transcription, the second offers almost real-time transcription, says Justice Ramly.
The ideal in real-time transcription is for the judge and counsel to see the words on their (individual) screen as they are typed. Also, in high profile public interest cases, recordings of the day’s proceedings can be burnt onto CDs and given to judge and counsel, along with a transcript, so they can check for errors and corrections can be made the very next day.
Judges who use the digital CRT system are optimistic it can reduce the length of trials and long waits for trial dates."
Quoting ZAKI MAKES SENSE OF CHAOS IN FILING ROOM
"A SMART partnership is one where all members have the same vision but they draw on each other's strengths to up their game.
Focussing on policy matters, Chief Justice Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Mohamed, who took over as top judge on Nov 1, has delegated the nuts and bolts of administration to Court of Appeal president Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi.
When the Court of Appeal first moved to Putrajaya, the filing room was in a chaotic state, says a senior judge who spoke on grounds of anonymity.
...
Within two and half months of becoming President, Justice Zaki worked with his registry staff to sort out the mess. Credit should also go to the staff who slaved on the project, working after hours and giving up their weekends, says the judge.
...
It is learnt that while chaos reigned with 13 filing clerks, peace reigns today with only two clerks manning the system. As a result, the government has saved some RM200,000 in employing new staff because the 11 clerks have now been deployed to more gainful work.
Justice Zaki has also encouraged urgent applications to be treated as appeals proper, to speedily dispose off matters generally, and interlocutory matters especially.
...
There is a rule that allows for this approach to be employed with regard to urgent appeals but no previous CJ or President had allowed judges to use that rule.
Contrast that to last week in the Court of Appeal where most of the applications were for extension of time to file the appeal record. Many of these cases concerned interlocutory applications that the High Court had either denied or allowed, for example, summary judgment applications, applications to amend the pleadings or a stay of proceedings in the High Court.
The panel under the chairmanship of Justice Sri Ram converted many of these applications to proper appeals so that the trial of the action need not be delayed.
“The court could do this because the President encourages such measures,” says the judge.
While Lim says Justice Zaki's attempt to shake up the registry is a positive move, the judge adds wryly: “Justice Zaki is very unpopular with the indolent. The hardworking get along well with him.”
The other areas in which Justice Zaki has brought timely change to are:
>DISPOSAL of leave applications – taking off from Justice Abdul Malek's leave applications committee (which would only fix a hearing date if it first rejected leave) that cleared 1,700 applications in six months from a backlog of 2,000 in 2004, he has directed that all such applications be disposed off in weeks;
>PENDING criminal appeals – getting lawyers and the Attorney General's Chambers to indicate in a form online whether the appeal is against conviction and sentence or sentence alone so he can prioritise them because the latter takes shorter time to hear; and
>ENCOURAGING judges to deliver extempore (off the cuff) decisions – he made available a digital CRT system available for use in one Court of Appeal courtroom on April 21. Since then, panels chaired by Justice Sri Ram, who is famous for delivering extempore decisions, have taken advantage of this."
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