"Auscript, transcripts and your right to know what their stamps mean..."
- Details
- Category: Uncategorised
- Created: Sunday, 02 February 2014 10:16
- Written by Alecomm2
Auscript have a government contract to supply court transcripts. Having received a few transcripts of prior court appearances by way of Affidavit from the other party, there was several concerns regarding the accuracy of it.
One of those concerns was a large stamp across a couple of pages only that reads “ISSUED SUBJECT TO CORRECTION”. The other pages of transcript did not have this large bold black stamp. We are not sure what this term means and attempted to find out by firstly calling Auscript and asking them to please explain what “ISSUED SUBJECT TO CORRECTION” stamped on some pages of (their) transcript meant.
We were requested to send our concerns via email with a copy of the transcripts received from the other party. The response we received was astounding:
“Please be aware that there is a copyright policy in place in which parties are not able to share the cost of a transcript. Each party must place their own order through Auscript and they will receive a separate copy each.
As the situation is currently a breach of copyright, we are unable to process your request. I will have someone from our Business Services team contact you with an estimate of costs and upon receiving payment we will be able to issue you a copy of the transcript along with the changes you have requested should our Quality Team deem them errors in the document.”
We had not requested any changes - only stated concerns over the accuracy of the transcripts and requested to know what that particular stamp meant.
So we responded: “What we would like to know please is what the stamp "ISSUED SUBJECT TO CORRECTION" actually means??? This has nothing to do with what you are talking about.”
Auscripts response was again:
”We would be more than happy to address your query, however as explained in my below email, we are currently unable to do so as the other party having shared their transcript with you is a direct breach in copyright. Both parties are required to purchase their own transcript through Auscript. Our Business Services team will be in touch with you this afternoon with a quote.”
We then called one of the directors at Auscript, Peter Wyatt, but he was not available.
We asked the person answering his phone could they please explain what the stamp “ISSUED SUBJECT TO CORRECTION” means. We were placed on hold and transferred to the author of the previous emails. We were informed that it was illegal for us to have these transcripts; that the other party had sent them to me illegally and they were in breach of copyright.
Auscript again refused to answer the question without receiving payment for the answer. So we asked to be transferred to the manager who basically reiterated that without my paying them we could not be given an answer to my question as it was not legal for them to answer my question unless we paid for the answer.
We then put the following scenario to the manager:
If we visit a general store that has a government contract to provide Australia post services, and ask them to explain what one of their stamps on a letter we had received meant, we would be expected to pay a fee to be provided with the answer.
Auscript still refused to provide an answer. They promised to bring up the request for an answer at a meeting with the Director the following day, and to call back.
Auscript have not called back. To date they have refused to answer a simple question that is what does ISSUED SUBJECT TO CORRECTION mean on a transcript.
It appears that the Australian government has contracted out all transcript services to a private company - who is then allowed to extort money from vulnerable people.
They do by firstly demanding money before they would explain what four words stamped across a page means.
Second they harass a person who has been merely served an affidavit by another person, that contains transcripts.
The recipient of the affidavit has not breached copyright so why is Auscript allowed to bully and harass them.
What is the consequence to the other party in this case that has acted illegally in serving me with an Affidavit that attaches these transcripts?
Does anyone know what “ISSUED SUBJECT TO CORRECTION” actually means when stamped across a page of a transcript? Does it mean that the other party paid to have the transcript altered to advantage their case? Why is it on a few pages but not all of them?
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