Switching on to a modern service

The Court Service has begun an on-line revolution to improve its systems.

But George Harrison asks whether law firms are on the same wavelength

The courts and tribunals modernisation project is the most challenging programme ever undertaken by the Court Service.

It dwarfs the Woolf reforms of civil justice.

The objective is nothing less than the paperless court environment, and the first tranche of dramatic changes can be expected within the next two years.

We now have the best chance of making the civil court system work efficiently.

The Court Service spends more on its buildings than it does on its staff.

In the civil courts, the work done by the staff is administrative and largely repetitive.

It can be done anywhere.

Technology will enable judges to generate their orders on screen and communicate on line with staff and the professions, and then it will be possible for the court office to be separated from the courtroom.

The administrative function of the Court Service will be ring-fenced, with one administrative office serving a large number of courtrooms over a wide area.

Whole sections of staff will be redeployed to more valuable work with the volume of process becoming less relevant as the procedures for handling it cease to be staff intensive.Once the courtrooms are separated from the office then the problem of the Court Service property portfolio will be addressed.

We can expect the rationalising of hearing venues so that they are used by all the judicial tiers involved in the administration of justice - magistrates' and county courts and tribunals - as they will utilise the same technology.

The disposal of several valuable and expensive buildings in city and town centres will create the chance to plan for an expansion of the venues in which routine judicial work can be disposed of, by reference to the needs and convenience of the public.Judicial working practices will also change.

A judge will be able to deal with any work which he is able to down-load irrespective of where it originated.

No longer will the whereabouts of the court file determine where action can be taken on it.

An excellent start has already been made.

The project is currently funded to the extent of 160 million and additional spending bids are intended to increase this to 600 million.

The appointment of Lord Justice Brooke, the 'modernisation judge', to the project board marks a significant change in the Court Service's approach.

Work has started on the ground.

The facility to issue money claims on line is up and running.

The creation of the first business centre pilot site will take place this summer with a 'paperwork centre' working concurrently with the court office at Walsall County Court.

The pilot will be gradually extended to other county courts including Birmingham.

And what are solicitors doing about it all? Alas, precious little.

The project is liaising with a handful of the largest law firms.

But the largest practices are not the legal profession of England and Wales.

All firms should be conscious of the need to adapt to this radical way of working alongside the Court Service and the judiciary, and they should be fully supporting and participating in the project both directly and through the Law Society.

A greater number of firms - of all sizes - must take an active interest in what is going on.

Local pilot schemes for the on-line issue of proceedings and for video-conferencing were two of the most exciting schemes to be launched by the Court Service in recent times, but the former was - and the latter is - largely neglected by solicitors.With the Woolf reforms, we were slow out of the blocks.

With this latest challenge, it is essential that the profession and the judiciary influence developments from the outset.

If we do not, the efficiency we all seek will elude us.

Judge George Harrison is the new chairman of the Association of District Judges