A mock “virtual” or “e-trial” has been conducted by Judge Simon Brown from the Birmingham Civil Justice Centre, in collaboration with judges in the US and New Zealand, to demonstrate the possibilities of digital courts.
Participants watched the “trial” on one screen and viewed court documents on another.
However, a Canadian judge’s recent statements in court show the struggle to modernise the justice system is shared by both sides of the Atlantic.
Refusing counsel’s request to conduct a trial in paper, which would result in 10 binders of documents, Judge DM Brown in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice expressed “profound frustration”. Recalling the music collection of 45rpms he treasured as a youth, he said they had “gone the way of the Dodo bird” and would be unrecognisable to his grandchildren.
“Why should courts and lawyers be any different?” he said, in Bank of Montreal v Faibish.
Birmingham Civil Justice Centre’s Judge Brown says: “What the judge is talking about is e-bundles for applications, CMCs and trials ‘bundles’, which concern only the judge and the litigators—not court filing that involves the parties and the court service.
“The latter is for the Ministry of Justice; the former is here and now in the Birmingham Mercantile Court pursuant to CPR 1.4(2)(l) as and when litigators want to work that way with easy to use secure software for eBundles and for video conferencing. Just one laptop per person, wifi and two screens each is all you need—and it is international, 24/7 and mobile!”
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