Transcripts are not enough

With thanks to Yossi Schochet here are some quotations showing transcripts do not capture the full trial experience:


Scopelliti, [1981] O.J. No. 3157 (CA) at para 80: " It is rarely possible, however, to capture the atmosphere of a trial by a reading of the transcript." 

K.G.B., [1993] S.C.R. No. 22 at para 98: " The audio-visual medium captures other elements of the statement lost in a transcript, such as actions or distinctive motions which the witness demonstrates (as in this case), or answers given by nodding or shaking the head." 

Harder, [2002] B.C.J. No. 536 (CA):    15     It might appear from the bare printed words of the transcript that the sentencing judge was somewhat brusque during his exchanges with counsel at the sentencing hearing...However, a printed transcript never captures the full picture. It does not pick up pauses, gestures, changes in inflection of the voice, and it is really just a bare record of what occurred. 

White v. The Queen, [1964] N.B.J. No. 7 (CA):     2     Without the advantage the learned magistrate possessed of seeing and hearing the witnesses and observing their demeanour and attitudes in the witness box, I am not prepared on a bare reading of the cold text of the transcript of testimony taken below to pit my judgment against his. 

R.A.K., [1995] B.C.J. No. 1199 (SC) at para 9: "The bare transcript does not afford the court adequate opportunity to reliably take the full measure of her testimony; in my view it would be imprudent to base a final decision, which would bring this proceeding to an end, upon the transcript alone."
James Morton
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