Lawyers plug into courtroom evidence

TRIALS: pilot presentation scheme could be rolled out to 50 courts if results are given thumbs-up

Lawyers preparing for trial could find themselves throwing away their notes in favour of PowerPoint presentations, after it emerged that the government may roll out its electronic presentation of evidence (EPE) pilot in England and Wales.

The pilots - which began in January last year - provide for the simultaneous display of evidence to all parties in a trial via monitors permanently installed in the courtroom, using presentation software.

Nine courts were equipped with the technology: Birmingham, Bristol, Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester Crown Square, and London-based Blackfriars, the Central Criminal Court, and Southwark.

The experiences of these courts are currently being evaluated, and a report is expected in May.

A spokesman for the Lord Chancellor's Department confirmed: 'If this is positive, then it may well be rolled out to 50 more sites in the summer.'

And Jeremy Barnett, head of the Bar Council's IT panel, has urged UK lawyers to embrace the latest courtroom technology after he attended a conference run by the Courtroom 21 project, a joint venture between the US National Centre for State Courts and the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The conference featured a mock trial involving a computer hacking case.

Electronic presentations were used to give an animated explanation on the use of e-mail in hacking cases and a run-down of how Web addresses can be used to trace computer usage.

The US is pushing ahead quickly with introducing IT to the courts, and Michigan is home to the world's first civil 'cyber court'.

Mr Barnett said that although the UK was making progress in this area - for example, with the EPE pilots - it still lagged behind the US owing to the structure of the system.

'There is no unified courtroom body in the US as there is in the UK, so each area has the autonomy to do things its own way over there,' he explained.

However, Mr Barnett added that progress was only possible with more enthusiasm from the profession.

'A major problem is persuading the stakeholders about the advantages of electronic preparation and presentation,' he said.

Paula Rohan