Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Article (first-person account by a judge)

When the Judge can't hear

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/risius-2015-when-the-judge-cant-hear/ · record checked 13 October 2026

  • Risius G
  • Counsel (counselmagazine.co.uk)

Independent (a Crown Court judge's own account, by Gordon Risius CB; the equipment described was supplied by Voice Products through arrangements made by the South Eastern Circuit Secretariat with the Ministry of Justice)

Summary

A Crown Court judge who lost most of their hearing after a head injury criticises the typical courtroom loop and describes a replacement microphone, mixing and wireless arrangement that made trials workable.

Key findings

  • Says the typical court loop used "a single small microphone" designed to pick up the courtroom generally rather than the person speaking, so it could carry so many sounds that an accurate note of evidence or submissions was impossible.
  • Judges that the loop "undoubtedly helps those with mild hearing loss, but does little for those whose hearing is more seriously affected".
  • Describes what was installed instead: extra microphones for counsel and the jury, vandal-proof microphones in the dock, and a mixer that automatically selects the microphones nearest whoever is speaking to cut background noise. The sound is sent by Bluetooth to a receiver worn round the neck, which relays it to the judge's hearing aids.
  • In the Problems section, reports lost clarity when recorded police interviews were played through loudspeakers and picked up by court microphones, and warns that forgetting to recharge the receiver could halt a trial. Meetings outside court stayed difficult because of background noise.

Limits

One person's experience of equipment arranged for a judge, not a public assistive listening system, and not a measured comparison; written in 2015. It names the supplier but gives no technical details of the loop or the replacement system.

Read the original

www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/when-the-judge-cant-hear

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Cited in

Cite this source

Risius G. When the Judge can't hear. Counsel (counselmagazine.co.uk). 12 January 2015. https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/when-the-judge-cant-hear (accessed 13 October 2026).

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