E-Courts

Brunei is moving towards a paperless government, and so the government of His Majesty Sultan of Brunei is actively implementing a number of projects towards the realisation of e-Government. This is being carried out through the development of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) infrastructures. One of the projects is the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Net that transforms procedures from paper based to an electronic system. (http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Archive/Feb05/010205/nite04.htm)

One service that will aid is this goal is an online courts service in Brunei, an E-Court. Countries such as United Kingdom and America, provide an online courts service as shown below:

(http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/index.htm)


(http://www.saccourt.ca.gov/)


(http://www.courts.ie/courts.ie/library3.nsf/PageCurrentWebLookUpTopNav/Home)


(http://www.courtsni.gov.uk/en-GB/default.htm?UserPref=culture^en-GB)

These services allow for a wide range of legal proceedings to be done online such as adoption, divorce proceedings, victims and witnesses in criminal cases, as well as several online services such as paying fines online, small claims online, possession claims online, juror notices online and many others. By implementing this E-Courts service, it will help Bruneians handle legal matters, such as paying traffic fins and applying for adoption, easily and quickly without them needing to drive to the relevant department and waiting in line. This helps save time and leads to a more efficient management of documents for both government units and citizens. With this court service, the public can even get legal advice online which takes less time; no need to wait for appointments with lawyers for mundane and simple cases. In contrast to the high priced-per-hour lawyers, the online court service is free and thus the public can easily make general inquiries and obtain information about law procedures.

This is one of the examples of an online form used to pay for traffic citations (tickets), and criminal payments in the County of Sacremento, California.



Furthermore, an online courts service would provide online forms for filling in and submitting online, such as small claims forms and appeals forms. People can even save and print out the forms for their own use. Thus, they save the time of having to go to get a new copy of the form. There are also guidelines provided online to help users fill in forms or to get updated on the status of their application online. With this E-Courts service, Brunei's legal proceedings will be able to become more productive.

In line with the e-Government strategic plan (2009-2014), this type of system will help to achieve the government's aims to provide online services to citizens that are sufficient, secure, easy to access and view. (http://www.bt.com.bn/en/news-national/2009/12/10/e-govt-initiative-means-better-service-delivery) Brunei should implement this E-Courts service, providing a similar functionality as the examples mentioned above. Such a move would greatly help Bruneians, both the general public and lawyers, to be able to quickly and conveniently carry out any legal proceedings.

References:
http://www.bt.com.bn/en/news-national/2009/12/10/e-govt-initiative-means-better-service-delivery Date accessed: 9th April 2010

http://www.brudirect.com/DailyInfo/News/Archive/Feb05/010205/nite04.htm Date accessed: 9th April 2010

http://www.courtsni.gov.uk/en-GB/default.htm?UserPref=culture^en-GB Date accessed: 9th April 2010

http://www.courts.ie/courts.ie/library3.nsf/PageCurrentWebLookUpTopNav/Home Date accessed: 9th April 2010

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/index.htm Date accessed: 9th April 2010

http://www.saccourt.ca.gov/ Date accessed: 9th April 2010