The justice system is moving forward from paper-based documents and procedures, and embraces gracefully the digital technology. This transition to digital services is redefining how justice is delivered. Relieved by the old stressful processes and procedures, the justice system in the future promises to be a lot more efficient and less expensive, which is the best part of all.
Why digital justice? Because nowadays’ courts are moving forward to digital services so they can overcome the many challenges they face in the legal system. Among these challenges, we encounter:
- Overuse of paper
- Limited resources
- Transparency
- Electronic scheduling
- Remote working
- Real-time collaboration
- Better sentencing
- Online dispute resolution
- Automated back office and shared services
- Automated archiving and retrieval
- Virtual courts
- Physical and cyber court security
After all, what’s holding back the growth of digital justice?
There are tremendous benefits behind this idea, but digital justice still faces challenges. In some countries across the world, many of the digital technologies aren’t allowed in the court. It means that only video photography will be permitted as evidence. And with no good internet connection, the digital tools simply won’t work properly.
How well a court’s legacy technology can fit in with 21st century systems?
A legacy system isn’t always definite by its time of life. It might sometimes be because of the lack of support or its incapacity to meet the needs of organizations. Such software is difficult to maintain or integrate, as the costs of legacy system maintenance may include:
- Infrastructure
- Updates and changes
- Staff member training
There are some reasons why organizations won’t stop using legacy systems:
- They don’t want to change it because it still works
- Continuity of operations
- High costs
Due to the fast changes in technology, many organizations have moved from paper-based documents to more modern systems. For now, only big organizations will have the capability to make huge investments in technologies. For example, legacy software is found mostly in financial institutions, such as banks, as these require more reliable systems, such as digital transcription services. With so many transcriptions happening every minute, there’s a high demand for security and accuracy in many institutions. However, many organizations can’t find themselves able to replace legacy technology, as they believe that the risks and high costs that come with replacement, well, are just too high.
The conclusion is that the increase of digital justice offers courts the competence to serve justice with much better efficiency and transparency. And all of this at low cost, making justice really accessible for all people. For lawyers especially, dependents, and for the courts themselves, or any other participant in legal cases. A well-functioning legal system can only bring benefits to the population.
Now, luckily, the most obvious problem is solved – tons of paperwork that is hard to deal with and even harder for the parties to access it, it’s now a thing of the past. Courts should embrace newer and efficient technologies that help court services mind their possible tech-related issues, which can eventually impact on justice purposes.