By Abel Johngold Orheruata
The Chief Judge (CJ) of Delta State, Justice Tessy Diai, yesterday, continued the sensitization of an e-Filing/Electronic and Case Management System (ECMS) to improve justice delivery in the State.
This newspaper, Spade Nigeria News Online gathered that the ECMS will manage all financial transactions, including court fee refunds through mobile platforms. And it has been integrated with the existing e-filing and Case Management systems and aims to improve efficiency in handling payments, deposits, and refunds related to court proceedings.
A total of 163 Court workers grouped in three categories of group A (Honourable judges), group B (Heads of Directors, Assistant Chiefs, Registrars, Litigation Registrars/Process and Account Clerks/Cashiers) and Group C which is Court Registrars/Open Court, Legal Research Assistants, Court Bailiffs and Compliance Officers were among those sensitized at the training held at the State High Court Asaba.
Justice Diai, who was represented by Honourable Justice G. B. Briki-Okolosi, said the program was for Court workers from the State, stressing that it marked a crucial step in improving access to justice and efficiency of judicial procedures. That it’s application manages the entire case process, from the point of filing to the point when the case is decided.
Disclosing that judicial workers in Asaba have earlier been trained, sensitized on electronic filing and now the turn of Court workers in other areas of the State, the CJ who noted that the main objective of the training was the sensitization and training of Court workers in the State on the use of the new ECMS, said “this was an effort to improve justice delivery, through the development of online courts and digital processes.”
Taking turns in their separate presentations, Mahmud Adamu and Abubakar Dahiru, resources persons from National Judicial Council (NJC), said e-filing is for lawyers to file in their cases anywhere they are and no more stress of going to the archives for workers to bring out cases. “And it’s only two types of persons that can log into it. That’s the registered lawyer on its platform and Court workers given access like the lawyer.”
While saying it’s a customized system that would make lawyers not to deny being served after serving, the system revert to the System (sender) that served it whenever the receiver (lawyer) open the mail it will notify the system that the receiver opened it. The NJC resource persons hinted that the system of e-filing would save Bailiffs the stress of serving a party. And that they had seen how Bailiffs toiled to ensure that they deliver Court summon papers under the most uncomfortable conditions to party.
The resource persons noted that technology should be harnessed to provide better and more efficient services to the public as it improves access to justice, stressing that the software offered litigants, through their counsel, the opportunity to file their matters comfortably online.
”The software has the capacity to accommodate online payment and every sundry attachment to the court processes.
”The era of paperwork is fast eroding as the software is developed to empower both the administrative and judicial proceedings of the case.” They added in their presentations.