UNSW Computerisation of Law: Discussion Questions (2000) - Computerised Courtrooms and Legal Practice

The Complex Trials Report (1993) made a lot of recommendations about the need for standards. To what extent does the use of the Internet provide an answer to this need?

26 Electronic Appeals Book recommendations

The Electronic Appeals Book Report (1998) made thirteen recommendations to the Council of Chief Justices. To what extent do they differ from the recommendations made in the Complex Trials Report (1993)? What accounts for the differences?

27 Electronic filing

What is the significance of electronic filing of Court process for the development of court technologies? (See the Electronic Appeals Book Report (1998) Recommendation 13 among other sources.) Why i s the use of XML significant for Court filing systems?

28 Encryption technologies

How significance are encryption technologies (including digital signatures) for the development of computerised court processes and litigation? Include a list of different ways in which you think they can be significant, and note whether there might be alternatives. [This question may be difficult for anyone without a background in the basic techniques of public key cryptography. See Peter van Dijk - 'PKI and the Legal Sector' for an introduction.]

29 Cooperation between the parties

If the parties won't agree about the use of technology, what can or should the court or tribunal be able to do? See the Complex Trials Report (1993) for some suggestions. To what extent does the Supreme Court of New South Wales Practice Note No. 105: Use of Technology in Civil Litigation address the problem generally, and the recommendations made in the Complex Trials Report?

30 Dangers of presentation graphics?

Are there any serious dangers to just outcomes of trials and litigation which can arise from the use of presentation graphics in trials? How can they be overcome? Does the Supreme Court of New South Wales Practice Note No. 105: Use of Technology in Civil Litigation address these problems?

31 Evidence law and presentation graphics

Does the Commonwealth Evidence Act 1995 or the NSW Evidence Act 1995 now make adequate provision for the admission of graphical presentation of evidence? (See the Complex Trials Report (1993) for some of the issues)

32 Gopher - Presentation graphics

What are the different types of presentation graphics? Find at least one Australian or overseas site in addition to those in the Reading Guide that is doing interesting things with presentation graphics for litigation support, and explain why it is interesting.

33 Mudmap of the future

Comment on the The Justice Trevor Olsson and Ian Rohde Mud Map (as used in a presentation at the AIJA Technology for Justice 2000 Conference). It gives a 'confidence factor' measurement for a set of predictions, as at 1998 and then as at 2000.

34 Courtroom 21

Courtroom 21 at the College of William & Mary and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), Virginia, USA claims to be 'The most technologically advanced courtroom in the world'. What evidence is there, from the Courtroom 21 site, and from other computerised courtrooms, that this claim is correct?

35 Susskind's future of legal practice

Richard Susskind in the Introduction to The Future of Law: Facing the Challenges of Information Technology, says

I envisage that legal work will shift from being an advisory service to becoming, in large part, a form of information service, a kind of legal service which might meet most of the needs of individual citizens and businesses and yet differ markedly from the traditional means by which legal counsel has been imparted. A vast, latent, legal market will emerge on the so-called information superhighway, giving everyone (and not just lawyers) ready and inexpensive access to legal products and information services. The focus of these services will be dispute pre-emption based on readily available legal guidance rather than dispute resolution in the courts; and legal risk management instead of legal problem solving. In the global information society, I claim, IT will help integrate the law with business and domestic life.

Is the type of service Susskind suggests likely to become the main way in which lawyers provide services via the Internet? What factors are for and against this?

36 Is free access justified?

AustLII has argued that public policy should maximise access to public legal information because it supports access to justice, the rule of law, and democratic institutions, and it assists business efficiency and international transparency. It argues that there are six obligations of public bodies to facilitate this.

Should courts and other public bodies have such obligations, or is this a waste of public money and an impediment to competitive commercial legal publishing?

37 Why is XML useful for legal documents?

What are the potential advantages of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for the creation of legal documents? What possible disadvantages are there? Is it necessary to have standards for XML to be of use?

38 Is Legal XML safe?

Are there any reasons why a commercial legal publisher, or a non-commercial publisher such as AustLII, might be cautious about participating in the standards-setting activities of Legal XML?

39 Court-designated citations

What are the advantages of Court-designated citations? Are there any disadvantages?

40 Use of Internet decisions in Court

The Supreme Court of NSW has issued Guidelines on Judgments in Electronic Form. What changes or additions to these guidelines would be needed before copies of decisions derived from Internet sources such as AustLII were able to be used in Court for all purposes? Would these changes be desirable?

41 Coordination or standards?

Is there still (or was there ever) a need for some central body (or bodies) to coordinate the use of information technology in Australian courts? (See the recommendations made in the Complex Trials Report and in the Electronic Appeals Book Report as starting points.)

Discussion Questions (2000) Topics - (i) Litigation Support and Court Technologies (ii) Legal practice technologies (iii) Public policy and standards for legal information

25 The Internet and standards for court technologies