The State’s Superior Court judges want to clamp down on the use of cellphones and other small electronic devices that could be employed easily by observers to record court proceedings.
The Council of Superior Court Judges has decided that no member of the public may record an open court proceeding without the approval of the presiding judge and 24 hours’ written notice. Judges are citing concerns over privacy, particularly of child witnesses, the need to maintain the integrity of an official record and attorneys who might bypass the court reporter to make their own transcripts.
The JQC and a member of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia have told the Daily Report that the rule could hinder investigations.
Those concerns were heightened after the council’s rules committee rejected an amendment offered by JQC member Brenda Weaver, chief superior court judge of the Appalachian Circuit, that would have exempted the JQC and law enforcement authorities from having to ask for a judge’s permission to record. Weaver could not be reached for comment.
JQC chairman Robert Ingram, a Marietta attorney and a former president of the State Bar of Georgia, told the Daily Report on Monday, “We have a number of questions about the proposed rule change.”
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