The Abia State Government said on Tuesday it has begun to digitise its justice delivery system to enhance the efficiency, transparency, and accessibility of legal services in the state.

The Commissioner for Justice, Ikechukwu Uwanna, made this known during a press briefing on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting in Umuahia.

Mr Uwanna, who is also the attorney general of the state, said that the adoption of digital platforms in the administration of justice in the state would be done in phases.

He said, “The first phase in the court digitisation is the scanning of court documents from the probate registry to the high court to the magistrates’ court, and customary court arrangements have been made for the scanning of all those documents. It doesn’t stop at scanning them; the documents would be properly indexed and stored to ensure that whatever the document is, within a split second you can find it in the central storage system. It also extends to the ministry of justice; actually, the project has started. The second phase of the project is putting together an e-filing system, what is better called a court information management system.’’

Mr Uwanna said that the digital system would enable a lawyer to prepare his processes remotely and file the documents at the central judiciary website.

According to him, this will make it easy for lawyers and litigants to have access to justice.

He said that the payments for the filing of court documents and the affidavit process for the documents including the commissioning of oaths would be done online.

Mr Uwanna said that the proposed digitalisation would include provisions that allowed service of court processes to the litigants or their lawyers, electronically or physically.

“The judiciary is being provided with the capacity to ensure that the hearing of cases is done either physically or virtually,” he said.

Mr Uwanna further said that the facilities for transcription of court proceedings would be installed in the court halls to remove any inhibitions to the timely delivery of justice.

He said, “Judges keep writing with long hands, and it affects their health and slows down the administration of justice. When we complete this process, they would not need to write in longhand because there would be facilities to ensure that there is transcription of whatever is being said in court.”

Mr Uwanna said that the system would include delivery of judgements virtually or physically, while the certified true copies of those judgements could be applied for online and received electronically.

He said that this ensured that the justice delivery system would be totally transformed into using technology.

Mr Uwanna said that the government strongly believed that this would make for an effective and efficient justice delivery system in the state.

He also said that the executive arm of government worked closely with the judiciary to ensure that the digital system would be designed to be very user-friendly.

Mr Uwanna said that as part of efforts to initiate the digitalisation process, the governor in October inaugurated the construction of court halls in the 17 local government areas of the state.

He further said that the prototype of the court halls being built in the 17 LGAs had been designed to be modern with renewable energy, and adequate provision being for natural lighting.

Mr Uwanna said that the finishing of the court halls and the need of each area would determine what it would be used for.

He also said that the court halls had reached different levels of completion and expressed hope that the contractors handling the project would deliver on schedule.

Mr Uwanna said that part of the agreement between the government and the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) involved sensitisation of its members to the digitalisation of the judiciary to ensure that the change would not take anyone unaware.

(NAN)