Volume 8 Issue 2

The Electronic Appeals Project

An Edited Extract of the Interim Report to the Council of Chief Justices

The paper is an edited version of a report prepared for the Council of Chief Justices in late 1996 examining the use of electronic material in appeals cases. After a brief introduction setting out the history of the report, the paper is divided into a number of sections:

An executive summary;

• A section setting out the business needs of the court which the electronic appeal book initiative aims to address;

• A section giving a conceptual model of a possible future electronic appeal process. It describes what could be done given the capabilities of the technology and the general directions being taken in the use of IT and electronic material in courts;

• A section dealing with IT and other issues relating to the use of electronic material in appeals, discussing the implications and suggesting solutions;

• A discussion of strategies for moving from paper-based appeals to electronic appeals;

• A discussion of the need for uniform standards to enable electronic material to be processed by those involved in the court system regardless of the IT system or software involved;

• An examination of proposed testing of electronic appeal book systems and related electronic court processes;

• A discussion of short term measures designed to give the courts experience in handling electronic materials as well as gaining some of the benefits of the use of IT;

• A proposed research project;

• Recommendations.