South London Legal Partnership wins technology category at LGC Awards

The South London Legal Partnership (SLLP) has won the Driving efficiency through technology category at the LGC Awards 2017 for its work on paperless courtrooms.

The SLLP – the shared legal service for Merton, Sutton, Richmond and Kingston Councils – developed a digital solution for a situation where council lawyers spent thousands of pounds on printing paper bundles and faced tight deadlines due to the need to courier them to court.

The partnership had also been shortlisted for the projects in three other categories at the LGC Awards: Efficiency; Innovation; and Business transformation.

In the citation for the Driving efficiency through technology award, it was said that the SLLP’s digital solution “seemed simple but it was a systemic challenge that required collective action, a developed IT solution, a party willing to lead and a sustainable business case”.

The SLLP worked with two IT suppliers and a number of London family courts on implementing the system.

The judges for the LGC Awards 2017 said: “The judges were impressed with the excellent use of technology to effect change, make a real difference and improve efficiency in an area in which it has previously been hard to break down barriers.”

In other categories Sevenoaks District Council was named Council of the Year, the London Borough of Newham was recognised for Most innovative service delivery model and Broxbourne Borough Council was awarded Entrepreneurial council.

The SLLP’s Digital Courtrooms project has seen it in the running for a number of other awards: UK IT Industry Award in the UK Innovation and Entrepreneurship category, the Family Law Awards as Local Authority Team of the Year and in the Innovative Lawyer/Innovation Team of the Year category of the Local Government Legal Awards.

The shared service estimates that the project could lead to savings of more than £1m for the justice system in London alone if bundles of legal documents are made available online.