Scots accent causes problems for transcribers
Court records said to be wrong because English-based company can't understand accent
Difficulties in understanding Scottish accents are leading to mistakes in the transcription of court cases, it has been claimed.
Lawyers have complained to Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini about the number of errors, which they fear could affect the outcome of appeals. They say the problem has arisen because the Scottish Courts Service awarded the transcription contract to the Devon-based company Mendip Media Group.
Place names and other words have been wrongly transcribed, such as Barlinnie being called "Barrel Annie". and "libelled" being reproduced as "liable".
Mendip said there had been problems, but it had hired Scottish transcribers and mistakes were due to the bad quality of recordings taken in court. The Scottish Court Service said its recording equipment was being updated to improve the quality, but there were still issues that needed to be addressed by Mendip.
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