Remote Courts Worldwide set up to support new services

A global initiative to help public court services cope with coronavirus has been launched today, as a forum for sharing experiences of developing remote alternatives to traditional court hearings.

With courts around the world closing due to the virus, most countries are setting up facilities for remote hearings, by audio and video, and Remote Courts Worldwide has been launched to help accelerate this transformation.

Designed to help judges, lawyers, court officials, litigants and court technologists to share their experiences of developing remote alternatives, it will capture best practice on a new website www.remotecourts.org

Remote Courts Worldwide is a collaborative project, involving the Society for Computers & Law, the UK LawTech Delivery Panel, and HM Courts & Tribunals Service. It also builds on the community built at the First International Forum on Online Courts, held in London in December 2018, when 300 people from 26 countries came together to talk about using technology to transform the work of courts.

The project is being led by Professor Richard Susskind, President of the Society for Computers and Law, and an expert in online courts.

It seeks to avoid the danger of "reinventing the wheel" and unnecessary duplication of effort across the world, by offering a systematic way of remote-court innovators and people who work in the justice system to exchange news about working systems, plans, ideas, policies, protocols, techniques, and safeguards.

Professor Susskind commented: "It’s time to come together, globally, to accelerate the introduction of remote hearings by judges. We have no choice. Physical courts are closing. There’s little point in lamenting any lack of past investment nor in predicting that the technology will fail. Let’s make it happen. We must seize the moment and come together to accelerate the development of new ways of delivering just outcomes for court users.

“In law, as in so many aspects of our lives, the coronavirus is overthrowing our traditional ways of doing things. The legal sector remains a core pillar of society and we must innovate to ensure it delivers on its purpose, for all of us. This new global initiative will facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practice from around the world, providing new ways of delivering justice through these unprecedented times and beyond."