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                                                                 [PP28]
Video for bail hearings and other proceedings


Video is used increasingly for various procedural hearings. Williams (1987)
summarises use of video by Victorian courts and in Canada, telephone
conferences by the AAT, and notes the working party leading to its use by the
Australian High Court (see also Virtue (1988)). In Victoria, the Attorney-
General's Department's Telecourt Report (1990) reports an extensive trial of
bail applications by remote video, requiring video links between courts and
prisons. In general, the experiment demonstrates the feasibility of using
video links from the actual courtroom, rather than from some externally
provided 'tele-conferencing centre', and contains valuable lessons for future
implementations. In the United States, extensive use is made of such 'video
arraignments': see Crump et al (1992) and tab3 of ICM (1991b)


Other aspects of the use of video in courts


Video may also be used in court for various other purposes which are dealt
with elsewhere in this Report: as a means of routine recording of proceedings
(see Chapter 4); as a means of displaying documents as they become new
exhibits (see Chapter 5); and as a device for the presentation of simulations
or summaries of evidence (see Chapter 6). All of these aspects of use of
video in courts in the United States are dealt with extensively in Crump et
al (1992) and the numerous papers collected in ICM (1991b), which include a
national survey of video use in US courts.




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