Snaresbrook Crown Court in London has won an award for an innovative IT pilot scheme that has speeded up court business by recording and distributing court hearing information electronically.

The court was awarded best team effort for innovation in the Justice Awards, organised by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and supported by the Department for Constitutional Affairs.


The pilot system, known as Xhibit (exchanging hearing information by Internet technology) provides instant access to information on the progress of cases and enables court clerks to record and maintain on-line electronic logs of all key events that occur during a hearing.


A public display system in the court shows the latest case status, with case information provided over the Internet and capable of being sent by e-mail to criminal justice organisations.


Post-trial documents including results, court orders, charge details and court lists are automatically produced from the information fed in by court clerks during the trial. The documents are published on the CJS Exchange Xhibit portal, which is available to all relevant organisations.


Courts minister Christopher Leslie said: 'The system revolutionises the way that court information is managed. It reduces the need for paper records and duplication of work as each separate document is drafted, thus freeing court employees to carry out other work.'


Snaresbrook court manager Stuart Hill said: 'We are the first court in the country to run this system and its success will boost the morale of all court users.'