Public speakers urge Michigan Judicial Council to expand public access to court audio, video and transcripts

Several speakers at the Michigan Judicial Council meeting urged the council and the Michigan Supreme Court to adopt policies that increase public access to audio and video recordings of court proceedings and to improve transcription timeliness.

Samantha Hallman, who identified herself as a voter and an educator and researcher, told the council that recordings contain information transcripts do not — “race, volume, tone, body language, and other indicators of judicial demeanor and potential misconduct” — and that transcripts can be cost‑prohibitive and slow to produce. “Transcripts are often cost prohibitive, and they take a significantly longer amount of time to receive compared to a recording,” Hallman said.

Rita Williams, editor of the investigative outlet Clutch Justice, said Michigan resists publishing comprehensive statistics on judicial discipline, case outcomes and sentencing disparities and repeated the call for recordings and open data dashboards. “Transparency should be the reform,” Williams said.

Other speakers urged practical steps: Greg Atkins and others said recordings and copies should be made available to litigants for a nominal fee (the State Bar previously recommended a low fee), while members of local bar associations and court stakeholders asked the council to explore technological solutions to transcription backlogs. Chuck Worpachowski of the Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration supported transparency but urged the council to include defense attorneys, formerly incarcerated people and other stakeholders in any public‑access plan to avoid retraumatizing people captured in older videos.

No rule changes were adopted at the meeting; council members said written comments would be considered as they finalize the strategic agenda. Several speakers said they will submit written testimony for the record.