Making connections

Paul Phelan reports on the South London Legal Partnership’s digitised courtroom pilot scheme with the Family Court, a first step towards the development of online courts.

The future of some of the most vulnerable children is decided in the family courts. Cases brought by local authorities tend to be complex and involve decisions about whether a council should become legally responsible for a child under a care order or a supervision order.

Sometimes it is necessary for a court to make an emergency protection order if a child is judged to be at risk of immediate harm by remaining with their parents.
The decisions made by judges in family courts will often change course of a child’s life. This makes it imperative for justices to have all the facts and information about the child’s circumstances in front of them.

Each family court case can have four or more hearings, requiring up to seven copies of the bundle of paperwork – for the parents and children’s guardian, and justices. Collating, copying and indexing all the evidence in paper form is very time consuming and it is easy for a mistake to be made which could affect the outcome of the case, for example a crucial document being added to the wrong section of a bundle or filed inaccurately.

Although this paper-based process is the way Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service has always worked, family courts have been some of the first to recognise that relying on a manual method is no longer an efficient way to work in an increasingly digital age.

Family courts have been some of the first to pilot digitised courtrooms which many would argue is the logical first step towards online courts.

The digital court in action
Given that the judiciary has taken centuries to evolve into the legal system we have today, the first online courts are likely to take a while to go live. As yet, there is no clear definition of what an online court would look like but it could be similar to Skype, Facetime or Google hangouts.

But in the meantime Digital Courtrooms are bridging the gap by combining the physical court building with electronic evidence. This revolutionary system makes it easier than ever before to create electronic court bundles that are automatically indexed and paginated, reducing the margin for error.

Once the bundle is ready it is sent securely and digitally to the court prior to the hearing. Hearings take place in a courtroom and all the people involved in the case and their representative attend in person. However, submitting the evidence digitally, in advance, benefits everyone - giving them all the chance to read documents before the court hearing, which means more cases start on time. On the day in court, extra hardware including laptops, tablets and television screens may be taken into the court room to assist with presenting the evidence.

These paperless court rooms have been pioneered by the South London Legal Partnership – the shared legal service of the boroughs of Merton, Sutton, Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth. Council lawyers set up a pilot project with two companies – Zylpha, which specialises in creating electronic bundles, and Project Fusion, which developed its online data room platform to transfer information securely. This was tailored to the requirements of the Digital Courtrooms project, enabling all the documents in each court case bundle to be kept in one place.

For the first time, this allows lawyers to prepare for a case in advance online where they can have access to all the documents at any time which are protected by the latest security technology.

Zylpha’s software makes it possible to update and repaginate bundles of court documents in a matter of minutes. Previously this could have taken many hours on the paper-based system. Distribution of the evidence is done online using encryption, eliminating the need for couriers and the expense and security risks of biking or mailing documents between lawyers’ offices and the court.     

The pilot has had the full support of the President of the Family Division and the court service. Court staff provided feedback throughout on how to improve the service, even though it required them to fundamentally change their established ways of working.

Representatives from the South London Legal Partnership sit on steering groups to share experiences with others and courts looking to make the switch to digital. Telephone and online support is available for all users of Digital Courtrooms including the court service, judges, barristers and solicitors.

The pioneering paperless courtrooms have enabled traditional court processes to be streamlined, making them more efficient and cheaper. A further example is that after a case has concluded, lawyers no longer have to go and collect the documents and shred them, which saves time and money.

Changing the culture
The South London Legal Partnership estimates that Digital Courtrooms has saved more than £800,000 since it began in March 2016. Although this is an IT solution, it is part of a culture change in the way we work and will unlock further benefits as working practices adapt.

This achievement was recognised in March 2017 by a prestigious industry award. The South London Legal Partnership won the Driving Efficiency Through Technology category at the Local Government Chronicle Awards. Judges praised Digital Courtrooms for an “excellent use of technology to effect change, make a real difference and improve efficiency.”

So far 1,069 cases have been handled by Digital Courtrooms which are now running in three of London’s family courts – West London Family Court, Central Family Court and East London Family Court sitting at Croydon. Many London boroughs are at various stages of digitising their legal cases and the South London Legal Partnership has fast-tracked this process. Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham Southwark, Hackney and Tri-borough (Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster) have all subscribed to the service.

Local authorities pay an annual fee based on the number of cases they have each year. The South London Legal Partnership has a comprehensive support programme for local authorities joining the Digital Courtrooms scheme and acts as a point of contact with the court.

User reaction
Feedback on how the system can be improved and also developed to meet new requirements is actively sought from local authorities and acted upon. One local authority legal team who subscribe to Digital Courtrooms said: “The digital delivery solution has revolutionised the way the Child Care Legal Team function. It has standardised the way the lawyers store documents ready to be converted into the electronic bundle using Zylpha Bundling, making it easy for anyone to search for and locate case documents.

“The control and ease at which the Project Fusion Data Rooms can be created has removed the stress of dealing with couriers or catching the DX. We truly believe that the digital solution will save the council thousands of pounds and free up valuable time.”

Chambers and law firms have also endorsed the switch to digital working. One family legal team manager said: “Digital bundles are definitely the way forward for the Family Court and since their introduction the system has worked extremely well.

“The court no longer has to receive large bundles of paper in lever arch files sent by the local authority by courier and then having to make arrangements for magistrates to either collect or to also send the bundles to them by courier.

“The e-bundles can be viewed by magistrates before they come to court and the e-bundles are downloaded onto lap-tops for them to use in court,” they added.

“During the proceedings, files are easily accessed and at the end of the proceedings there is no storage or destruction issues and cost for the court. The South London Legal Partnership has also greatly assisted the operation of the digital bundle system by offering IT support where needed and the use of laptops for the e-Bundles to be downloaded for use by the magistrates in court.”

A district judge said Digital Courtrooms have saved hours of time by enabling copying and pasting from bundles into judgements; while a magistrate said it is easier and safer than having to carry bundles of paperwork on public transport. One counsel commented: “This is the new world and I love it.”

There is huge potential for the future of Digital Courtrooms. We would like to see as many London boroughs as possible using the service which will benefit both local authorities and the Court Service because we are using one system. As well as London boroughs, we are talking to courts and local authorities outside the capital which are interested in piloting the initiative.

The more councils that use it, the more effective Digital Courtrooms will become as everyone will be using the same system, creating opportunities for greater collaboration, including with the Court Service so everyone connected to the cases gets served at the same time. The solution is proven and the family courts are now actively encouraging a digital way of working. Digital Courtrooms are transforming the way court cases are administered and setting a precedent for the way council legal services could work in the future.

Paul Phelan is Legal Practice Manager for the South London Legal Partnership

This article was first published in the July edition of Local Government Lawyer Insight, which can be accessed at http://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/insight Insight is published four times a year and is circulated free-of-charge to all Local Government Lawyer newsletter subscribers (click here to subscribe) in electronic format. A single hard copy is also circulated to all local authority legal departments in England and Wales. Additional printed copies are available for just £49.95 for four issues. Multiple copies are also available at £149.95 for five or £249.95 for 10. Payment can be made by purchase order/invoice or by credit/debit card. To order, please call 0207 239 4917 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..