Three months after the Calgary Courts Centre officially opened, lawyers say there are still daily problems, causing delays for themselves as well as prisoners.

Some lawyers told CBC News prisoners can be up to 1½ hours late in being transported from the remand centre to the courthouse on 6th Avenue and 5th Street Southwest.

The closed circuit television link is not working and won't be fixed until the end of February, requiring more prisoners to make their court appearances in person.

Lawyer Stephen Jenuth said lawyers should not be forced to proceed in court without their clients.

"While efficiency and expediency sometimes requires lawyers to waive the attendance of their clients, really clients should be present in court when their matters are put over," he said.

"That way they learn exactly what's happened and don't have to learn about it second-hand either from their lawyer or other people."

Criminal lawyer John James said the building's holding cells are poorly designed, and that the Courts Centre should not have opened in September before construction was finished.

"The way they've been configured and the way transport is done within — from the remand centre to here as well as within the building — have caused some issues of mixing prisoners who shouldn't be together, of overcrowding in cells."

Even the audio system in the courtrooms is problematic, said lawyer Allan Fay.

"Sometimes in the courtrooms there are strange things going on with the audio — not being able to hear people, hearing people when they're trying not to be heard."

Lawyers also said it takes longer to get around on the new elevators than it did travelling between the various courthouses downtown before the twin-tower complex opened.

The province said the problems are part of working out the bugs in a new building.