Jamaican Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck
The Jamaican Ministry of Justice has said that they are ready to move towards a paperless court system this year where they might borrow a leaf from Rwanda’s model.
Delroy Chuck Minister of Justice in Jamaica said the move will form part of the ministry’s push to improve service delivery through technology.
“We visited Rwanda and saw how they have a paperless system. No files in court, just laptops or computers, and that is where we want to go as quickly as possible,” Chuck said.
Chuck, who is also the Jamaica Chief Justice said this week that increasing connectivity and internet penetration within the Jamaica justice system, services and advancing the use of technology remain a priority for the ministry thus a need to push the paperless drive.
“It is important that we have an integrated technology system that connects the Director of Public Prosecutions, the police, courts and other supporting services,” Chuck told local media in Jamaica.
Chuck said that this move will speed up the process of electronically delivering justice in time rather than having a bundle of papers in court and respond to citizen complaints of delays and costs incurred in seeking Justice.
In November 2022, a Jamaican delegation composed of senior officials led by Delroy Chuck visited Rwanda to study Rwanda’s justice system, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The visit was highlighted by technical exchanges on Rwanda’s progressive work in alternative justice and technology-driven case management.
The delegation’s consultations on Alternative Justice Services focused on methodologies for efficient case disposal in mediation and arbitration; Rwanda’s restorative justice mechanisms including its Gacaca courts; as well as child diversion policies and legal aid.
In November 2022, a Jamaican delegation composed of senior officials led by Delroy Chuck visited Rwanda to study Rwanda’s justice system, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The visit was highlighted by technical exchanges on Rwanda’s progressive work in alternative justice and technology-driven case management.
The delegation’s consultations on Alternative Justice Services focused on methodologies for efficient case disposal in mediation and arbitration; Rwanda’s restorative justice mechanisms including its Gacaca courts; as well as child diversion policies and legal aid.
The Jamaican team was also interested in exchanges on Rwanda’s Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS) focused on enabling legislative and policy environment; data-related protocols and capacity building.
Rwanda’s IECMS is an Electronic case management System integrating 5 institutions of the justice sector in Rwanda (Judiciary, Ministry of Justice, National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA), Criminal Investigation Department (Police), and the Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS).
Jamaica team at Rwanda High Court in November 2022
The system accommodates the whole case life cycle from filing to hearing, judgment, appeal, closure, and execution, both in civil and criminal matters; standardizes case record storage and streamlines current processes; manages consolidated information on the case data and ensures the effective case processing thereby facilitating the decision-making process.
The system ensures data moves seamlessly from one justice sector institution to another improving communication. and reducing the likelihood of processing errors.
Since its establishment in 2016, It captures 43 courts and over 40,000 users (as of 2019 records) who can submit, and follow up on case progress (for example- dates, hearing, and court details) with a click on the finger on their smartphones, personal computer, or public cyber cafes.
To enter the IECMS system, one has to log on to the system with a registered user account and follow the prompts according to their need.
Before the introduction of the system, there were three (3) major inconveniences that were recorded in the paper system- Long queues at courts to file cases, High cost in terms of time and litigant transport, and Limited access to Justice; however, this has changed and seen direct benefits to users including citizens and judiciary staff in submitting and following up on court cases.
Among these, but not limited is the substantial savings as a result of a reduction in the use of paper, transport costs, time spent for case processing, the need for storage space, as well as easier archiving of documents;
The system also assists the justice sector institutions’ officials to have easy and ad-hoc access to the information required for processing legal cases and implementing their day-to-day operations.
The IECMS system was developed in two phases by Washington-based firm Synergy International Systems at a cost of $ 2.1 million (approximately Rwf 2.1 billion).
