The new Judgment hosting service at the National Archives have released their draft publishing policy following a FOI Request.
The National Archives started publishing “important court and tribunal judgments” on their ‘Find Case Law‘ service from April 2022. We’re told this forms part of the MOJ’s commitment to “standardising its approach to the publication of judgments“.
I noticed the statement “We will check every judgment and decision before we publish them on the Find Case Law service” and became curious – just how are the words of our Judges being checked and changed? One FOI request later, replied to at commendable speed, and I have the answer.
The full 52-paragraph ‘Draft Publishing Policy for Court Judgments and Tribunal Decisions’ can be read here, some key points are below.
Open Justice
We’re told that “Open justice is a fundamental constitutional principle and necessary for the rule of law.” and that it’s “important that significant Court Judgments and Tribunal Decisions are published, unless there is a strong reason to withhold a judgment from publication.“
Checks
Checks are carried out by a ‘trained legal editor’ however, the Judge “has the final word” on suitability for publication and The National Archives “will always publish judgments having received confirmation from the clerk or judge“.
The report explains the initial assessment includes reading the first few sentences of the judgment body to see if there is a restriction or condition on publication.
We’re told high risk judgments include: judgments delivered in private, sexual offences, FGM, national security and defamation cases.
The TDR Service
Clerks and judges are required to use the Transfer Digital Records (TDR) service to pass the publication version of the judgment to The National Archives.
The TDR service creates a check-sum of the judgment on the clerk’s computer, transmits the judgment, and runs various checks on receipt. TDR creates an audit trail that provides the chain of custody for the judgment from the court to The National Archives.
Timing of publication
The rapid publication of judgments is important for users and The National Archives has a target to publish low risk judgments within 20 minutes of receipt.
The target for publication of all medium and high risk judgments is within 24 hours
of receipt.
Withdrawal from publication
Once a judgment has been published, The National Archives will only withdraw it from publication if they are instructed to do so by a judge / court.
The National Archives expects to receive takedown requests from the public. The usual response will be to deny the request.
In the case that The National Archives believes a takedown request to be well founded, they “will contact the judge or court concerned for a decision“.
Mouse in the Court 