The overdue installation of modern IT into the Rolls Building in London is to be completed by the end of next year under a £5m contract announced by HM Courts and Tribunals Service today. 

Thomson Reuters has signed a contract to install new technology by the end of 2015 after winning a procurement process run by HMCTS. 

The changes will ensure a digital case management and electronic filing system at the Royal Courts of Justice, using Thomson Reuters’ C-Track product. 

The lack of electronic case management systems in the Rolls Building has been a growing source of embarrassment to the courts service.

In December 2013, a major review of the Chancery Division found an almost complete lack of IT to be making effective modernisation and reform ‘simply unachievable’. 

A spokesman for the judicial office said the contract has the approval of the judges of the three jurisdictions in the Rolls Building – the Chancery Division, Commercial Court and Technology and Construction Court.

He added: ‘The new IT will place the Rolls Building jurisdictions in the forefront of modern court technology on the world stage consistent with the high standard and international reputation of London as a business dispute resolution centre.

‘The IT system will provide for online filing of claims 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the world. It will also provide for the subsequent electronic filing of statements of case and other documents, electronic listing capability and production of orders.’

Thomson Reuters said it has been developing the system for more than 15 years and has promised it will make the legal profession ‘more efficient and cost-saving’. The C-Track is designed specifically to capture, track, process and report on court information and keep cases moving through the judicial process, the company said. 

Susan Taylor Martin, president of the legal business of Thomson Reuters, said: ‘I am confident that the combination of our innovative technology and deep industry experience will make a significant contribution to HMCTS and its partners as they seek to deliver a more effective, efficient and high-performing courts and tribunals administration.’

This article was amended on 7 May 2014 to include the estimated value of the contract, which we had previously said had not been announced.