TRAINING continues for lawyers and other stakeholders in the Administrative and Labour Courts as the Judicial Service Commission puts in final touches to the introduction of the Integrated Electronic Case Management System at the beginning of next month.
JSC enters the second phase of the IECMS next month, with the two important courts going paperless to enhance efficiency in justicedelivery.
Virtual and physical training sessions started last week and they continue this week, so all users are ready.
JSC head of corporate services Mr Daniel Nemukuyu said the judges of the two courts had since been trained and were ready for implementation.
“There is no going back on the digitisation of courts.
“Our judges of the Labour Court and Administrative Court have been trained and they are now ready for the second phase of IECMS.
“Last week, members of the JSC and other court users had virtual training sessions on IECMS to prepare them for the new system. The training is ongoing and we will continue running the sessions until all court users appreciate IECMS,” he said.
External stakeholders will attend physical training sessions in Harare from today.
“We have invited some external stakeholders for training on IECMS that starts on Monday (today) and ends on Tuesday in Harare. For those who cannot attend the physical training, we will train them virtually.”
Last week, JSC Secretary Mr Walter Chikwana took the IECMS second phase awareness campaign to Manicaland, Masvingo, Bulawayo and Midlands provinces where he met lawyers and other court users.
His entourage included technical persons who assisted in registering stakeholders with the IECMS system ahead of the digitisation of courts.
The first phase of IECMS was launched in May last year and it saw the digitisation of the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court and the Commercial Court.
The three courts are now paperless and positive results are already showing in terms of efficiency.
The second phase now seeks to digitise the Labour Court and the Administrative Court.
Those who register with the IECMS will access the system using their log-in backed by their private passwords.
While in the system, one can check the progress of their case online, file documents electronically, access judgments, do e-payment of fees and it will also see the rolling out of virtual hearings wherein parties to a case, who are registered, receive a link to participate in a virtual trial from their homes or offices.
A desk or laptop computer or a smartphone connected to the internet with a valid email address is needed to allow the user to lodge legal documents.
IECMS is a web-based system that is developed to make the functional areas in the judicial service more efficient and effective.
Access to justice has become an important issue in many justice systems around the world and increasingly, technology is seen as a potential facilitator of access to justice, particularly in terms of improving justice sector efficiency.
One of the main intentions of this project is to control and allow complete registration of all court cases and tracking of current case status and location to enhance public access on the web, avoiding clients going to court and also the need to follow up days after the filing of the case. – The Herald
