Africa-Press – Lesotho. A Full Spectrum E-Judiciary to Effect Reform in Lesotho’s Legal System This is another massive, multi-layered topic which a column such as this one cannot, excuse the pun, do justice.
My approach is to keep things energizing and away from divisive issues. What I found exceedingly energizing in putting this contribution together was engaging with a few local stakeholders and reading up on judicial reform in India.
India is, based on a few journal articles and newspaper reports, a textbook case of Exponential Age judicial reform. My contribution zones in on the expansion of an e-judiciary in Lesotho, which can truly revitalize not only the judiciary, but the entire legal system, to deliver services in a client-centric manner.
The operative word here is “expand” because over the past 5 years or so, moves have been made to introduce relevant innovations in our legal system but, according to the stakeholders I engaged with, there’s room for improvement.
For example, in 2014 two donor-driven innovations were introduced after a few years of laying the groundwork: (a) a digital recording system in the Magistrates Courts and the High Court;
(b) an automated case management system which included e-filing and the scanning of all court processes.
The MCA and the International Law Institute African Center for Legal Excellence were the external partners in this project. The main challenges are reportedly budget and lack of human resources to drive these systems.
The IT problems regularly experienced also affect the smooth running of this system. It seems, from some of these conversations, that the e-judiciary project is therefore in limbo in Lesotho.
The question that arises therefore is, do we throw more money at the problem or do we get more buy-in from local stakeholders? I suppose it’s a combination of both. An example of a buy-in issue is the fact that the draft e-filing rules are still not in place and yet they were reportedly adopted 4 years ago.
Inasmuch as the MCA and the International Law Institute African Center for Legal Excellence got us here, what’s needed to get us to our desired destination? It’s always lovely to get help from our international friends but what’s most necessary is local buy-in and the commitment of our resources to this project.
Let’s have a look at India and see how they have gone about creating their e-judiciary which are also known as the Courts of Tomorrow. A Tribune newspaper editorial defines an eCourt as, “any area designated as a place where legal matters are decided so long as a judge is present, and which has a developed technical infrastructure manned by people familiar with its usage.
” According to the Tribune editorial, the following are some of the features and advantages of an eCourt:
*they allow trials to be conducted without prisoners having to be transported from jail to the court;
*they provide protection and anonymity for witnesses;
*they considerably speed up traditionally slow processes.
This is achieved, in part, through the use of technologies such as Skype (in one case apparently testimony was heard from a witness resident in the USA via video link).
To put the use of Skype into proper perspective lest this be viewed as a pipedream: Skype is an app that these days even has a mobile version that can be downloaded in seconds.
All that’s needed is a stable connection to the internet and away we go. To drive these reforms in India, under the auspices of the National Innovation Council, there’s a body tasked with promoting the use of ICT in the judicial system.
This body is known as the National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal Reforms according to information gleaned from the National Innovation Council Archives. This wave of legal technological advancements in India has seen the judiciary and lawyers partnering and lawyers showing leadership in this arena.
For example, in 2017, according to a report of The Pioneer newspaper, lawyers held a Legal Technology Conference which promoted the, “[infusion] of technology in the Indian legal system and the [introduction] of interactive digital softwares to facilitate easier functioning of the legal system”.
The Courts of Tomorrow Working Paper of 2012 highlights no less than 10 areas for technology adoption: The first phase which was slated to take 5 years to implement started with the implementation of this model in the Supreme Court and then this would cascade to lower courts in due course.
Culture and mindset have a huge bearing on the successful implementation of such innovations. All I wish for in these types of conversations is us refraining from the knee-jerk creativity killer phrase “ha ho na chelete” as opposed to “how do we?”
Mothepa Ndumo is a lawyer, former academic, executive and leadership coach, community builder and entrepreneur.
