There are fears mass redundancies at Australia’s main transcription service could leave court cases around the country in limbo after it was revealed VIQ Solutions would be wound down.
The ABC understands all VIQ Solutions court transcribers are expected to be made redundant and no further orders for transcripts will be accepted through its portal.
However, the Federal Court said contingency plans were being worked on.
VIQ Solutions was embroiled in controversy earlier this year after the ABC revealed sensitive court files were being transcribed in India in breach of the company’s multi-million-dollar government contract.Complaint lodged with Canada’s privacy commissioner over Australian court breach
Litigants in at least 146 court matters were potentially involved in a data breach that is now the subject of a formal complaint with the privacy commissioner in Canada, Senate estimates has been told.
Administrators McGrathNicol were called in on March 16 to urgently assess the company’s viability, four weeks after the breach was made public.
VIQ Solutions was responsible for transcription services for the family and federal courts, the South Australian Employment Tribunal, as well as the courts and tribunals in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.
A spokesperson for the Federal Court of Australia said it was taking “all necessary steps” to ensure control of court data and recordings.
“Longer-term arrangements will be focused on a low-cost model for transcript services for all litigants, including those most disadvantaged or at risk, at the core of its design.”
Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who sits on the legal and constitutional affairs committee, said the federal courts’ reputation had been damaged.
“This kind of essential public service should never have been privatised in the first place, and now that the monopoly corporate provider is exiting it leaves the court system in a shambles,” he said.
“Whoever signed and oversaw this contract needs to front Senate Estimates and explain what due diligence they did on a company that has offshored private information, now gone broke and seriously damaged the reputation of our Federal Courts.”
Source: Court transcription company VIQ Solutions to be shut down, mass redundancies expected – ABC News