By Judge Peter Callinicos

A decision for Australian and New Zealand district and county courts to liaise on technology issues is making progress in areas affecting judicial performance, security and wellness.

The committee was formed in 2017 and I was assigned as the New Zealand District Court representative.

The committee’s central objective is to ensure these various jurisdictions can share information and concepts on the dynamic issue of technology. It aims to avoid reinventing the wheel, to identify solutions for problems as they arise and ensure our respective courts can develop within a framework of proven technological systems.

The committee first met in March 2018. It comprises judges of the District Court and County Courts of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and the District Court of New Zealand. It meets by AVL every two to three months.

The chair is rotated for each meeting, with different members assuming responsibility for projects. The committee agrees on a specific technology-related topic to investigate, and members report on how their jurisdictions address that. Given the scale of some topics, it was decided to limit projects to two or three at a time.

An outcome report is then produced on each topic and submitted to the heads of our various court benches. It remains for the respective Chief Judges to decide how to apply the report within their jurisdiction.

“The committee’s central objective is to ensure these various jurisdictions can share information and concepts on the dynamic issue of technology”

To date, the committee has completed three main projects. The first considered the role of litigants in person in terms of lodgement of pleadings or participation by electronic means. This project is of limited current application in New Zealand, where electronic participation is largely non-existent. Nonetheless, the report gives us valuable insights as to what we might implement in the future, or not.

The second project considered judicial security in an online environment and the third project addressed the overlap between technology and judicial stress.

These three projects are dynamic in nature and will be constantly refined as new issues or technologies arise.

Other project topics which the committee is likely to consider in future include e-Court advancements, precedent libraries, Judicial IT training modules or systems, technology-based legislation and the security risks of judicial use of social media. .