The Bar Standards Board has entered the digital age, having decided to use software which collates and stores evidence in digital form, reducing the need for paper documents.

Caselines is a UK developed system currently used by Crown courts and some family courts. Designed to increase efficiency, the platform allows parties to load documents onto a remote cloud server, so evidence can be securely shared between members of the BSB’s staff and its independent decision-making body.

According to the regulator, Caselines will be integrated with a new custom-made case management system and is part of the BSB’s regulatory shake-up.

Sara Jagger, director of legal and enforcement at the BSB, said: ‘[Caselines] makes the task of collating, reviewing and annotating evidence so much easier for everyone involved, and crucially helps to speed up the decision-making process.

‘In the future we hope to extend the use of CaseLines to supporting tribunals and other panels.’

In a further re-think of regulatory procedure, the BSB has decided to pay barristers for representation in disciplinary tribunals (60 barristers previously worked on a pro bono basis). It will also pay its independent decision-making body, which decides whether a case should be passed onto the tribunal.