Legal
Records & Retention Policy
Verdict's record of a sitting is a written, timestamped, append-only account, certified and sealed by the court. This policy explains how it is made, proved, kept and disposed of.
Last updated 5 August 2026
1. What the record is
The official output of a sitting is a written record: the court and suit details, the appearances with each participant's appellation, and every entry made during the sitting in sequence — submissions noted, exhibits tendered, objections, directions, rulings and orders — each with an author, role and UTC timestamp. Courtroom audio and video are not captured or stored.
2. Append-only by design
Entries cannot be edited or deleted by any user, including administrators; the database revokes those privileges. A correction is made by entering a further record, exactly as a court corrects itself on the record.
3. Certification and integrity
- At the close of a sitting the registrar or presiding judge certifies the record; the transcript is then sealed.
- A SHA-256 fingerprint is computed over the sealed text and stored with it, so any later alteration of an exported copy can be detected by recomputing the fingerprint.
- The certifying officer's name, role and the certification time are recorded on the face of the record.
- A sealed record cannot be re-opened or re-certified.
4. Retention periods
- Certified sitting records: ten years from certification by default, or longer where the court's own retention schedule or the law requires.
- Case files, pleadings and exhibits: for the life of the case plus the period fixed by the court's schedule.
- Access and audit logs: two years.
- Account records of court officers: for the licence term plus the applicable limitation period.
- Records of proceedings involving children, capital matters, or land title are held for the longer period fixed by the court.
5. Access to the record
The archive is readable by the court's officers within their own court only. Certified records may be viewed, downloaded and printed for filing, service and appeal. Release to a person outside the court is a judicial decision made under the rules of court, not a platform setting.
6. Export and disposal
A court may export its records at any time in machine-readable and printable form, and does so as a matter of course on exit. Disposal at the end of a retention period is authorised by the court and logged. Certified records are not deleted on the request of a participant; a data subject's remedy is a correcting entry or an application to the court.