Judiciary filing e-copy of cases

The Supreme and National Court registrar Ian Augerea says his office no longer receives hard copy files for registration of cases as it now uses the integrated electronic case management system (IECMS).
IECMS is a database designed to record the journey of a criminal from the point of arrest at the police station to the district courts, then to the national and supreme courts. It aims to transform the way the judiciary operates its recording systems.
Augerea said this during a presentation on e-courts at the launch of the judiciary satellite network on Friday.
“The database involves the police, district courts, national and supreme courts and the correctional services,” he said.
“There is talk underway with the developer to include the public prosecutor and the public solicitor.
“We have also been training people in those agencies to be partners in the use of this database.”
Augerea said his office received the first electronically filed case into the court system on March 23, when the Government announced the Covid-19 measures.
“Every civil case in Waigani is filed through the IECMS, we no longer receive hard copy files,” he said. “We started the pilot project this year and have covered seven provinces, we were looking at covering another three provinces but that didn’t happen because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We plan to go into six provinces next year and by 2022, we should have IECMS covering the entire country.”
Augerea said the digital journey of the judiciary went back many years. “Judiciary went into a faster, more organised mode in developing the digital system for the country in 2008 when then Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia commenced the exercise to scan all court files across the country,” he said.
“It took us close to four years.
“We scanned court files dating back to 1948, covering the entire nation and totalling close to 79,000 files.”