For the first time in any court in England and Wales, the public are about to see justice in action — rather than rely for their knowledge of the justice system on dramas or footage from the United States. When the Supreme Court opens this week, it will have broadcasting facilities and other IT that make it the UK’s most technologically advanced court.

In all three courtrooms, there are four fixed cameras to record all proceedings for display on large monitors in the exhibition area. A protocol is in place with broadcasters to provide materials for news and documentaries and, in sensitive cases, procedures to safeguard the anonymity of those involved. These filming arrangements are unique in courts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, where cameras have by statute been banned.

The three courts are also equipped with document display systems. Elegant, black, flat, high-resolution monitors sit before all judges. When barristers argue their cases, the precise pages under discussion appear on the screens. The judges do not need to search for paper-based folders and documents. This technology alone can cut hearing times by a quarter.

Judges — or justices, as they will be known — can also bring laptops into court. On these they can highlight text within their own electronic copies of the case materials, add comments and copy and paste relevant words. Later, their annotations and extracts can be gathered together as searchable collections of notes.

The judges can also roam the documents, jumping from one to another using hyperlinks. These features are enabled by another innovation — electronic filing (e-filing). Unless permission is given, all documents and bundles submitted to the court must be sent both electronically and as conventional paper-based files. E-filing is conducted by e-mail or the delivery of a memory stick to the registry of the court. The core volume of documents must be submitted as a single, bookmarked PDF document. So for each case, judges have a convenient electronic document bundle that behaves like a mini-website.

Another advantage of e-filing is that the documents feed easily into the court’s case management systems. These are the back- office facilities that support the everyday tasks of document filing, case progression and listing. In turn the system provides officials and justices with electronic virtual case files.

What about the public and the lawyers? Any web user can find out the status of cases before the court. Details are fed from the case management system to the website (www.supremecourt.gov.uk), so people can view summary information and lawyers peruse in greater detail.

Introducing IT to the Supreme Court was made easier because a high-tech court was envisaged from the outset. The Ministry of Justice and various IT suppliers developed the systems and an IT user group oversaw the project. This was chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate and comprised Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, Jenny Rowe, the court’s chief executive, two legal technologists with systems specialists and ministry officials. Lord Saville’s experience in the Bloody Sunday inquiry informed the design of the systems, as did interviews with each prospective judge, conducted by a legal technologist, Matthew di Rienzo.

One challenge for the user group was to try to future-proof the technology — to specify systems to accommodate the varying needs of current judges and yet anticipate needs of future justices who are likely to be more demanding of IT. In practice, this means that some of today’s facilities may not be fully embraced for some years. But, in time, their very existence might change judges’ working practices, how they debate and collaborate on judgments.

The author is IT adviser to the Lord Chief Justice, Visiting Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute and member of the Supreme Court IT user group

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