An American multinational technology company, Microsoft, has recognised the European Union (EU) funded electronic court management system which the Malawi Judiciary and Directorate of Public Prosecution are implementing.
The judiciary is implementing a project which is expected to change all the court files into electronic format.
In an e-mail that Microsoft Regional Content Creation Manager for Microsoft at Wings4U, Klara Fürstner sent to project’s coordinator Justice Dunstain Mwaungulu, Fürstner said she is pleased to say the Malawi Judiciary and Directorate of Public Prosecutions(DPP) case study is now live on Microsoft’s Global Customer Evidence Website.
“Thank you for your input and assistance in completing the case study! This story is a great opportunity to bring attention to your organisation, therefore we encourage you to share it with your contacts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, via Email, or any marketing channel you prefer,” the letter reads.
Mwaungulu said the integrated national e-justice system streamlines processes, eases administration and, most importantly, supports citizen access to a transparent, robust back end system.
This means everyone from judges to lawyers to plaintiffs can track cases’ progress.
“Together with our IT partner, we have produced a very efficient and effective case management system,” Mwaungulu said.
In an earlier interview, Mwaungulu said the system will start with the high court and the office of the DPP with the plan to eventually extend to magistrates’ courts, the prisons, police and lawyers in future.
He said judicial principal officers including the Chief Justice will be able to monitor the pace at which the individual judges handle cases.
“The system will be helpful in the overall supervision by the principal officers. For example, the Chief Justice will be able to instantly access all information on the performance of the judges. The system will be able to produce data for the supervisors in terms of number of cases that a particular judge is handling and the number of judgements that the judge delivers in a month. There will be a lot of feedback for the management such that if not satisfied, the supervisors will be able to knock on the judges’ door and ask for progress on the cases that they are handling,” Mwaungulu said.
He also said with the system, the judges will be able to dictate instead of writing their judgements and lawyers will be able to have access to typed evidence while the case is in progress as the system will be recording the voice and typing the contents.
Mwaungulu emphasised that the system will not affect the jobs of the court clerks although in future the people with high information technology knowledge will be ideal for the job.
He said 272 laptop computers had already been bought for the exercise.
Bulgaria’s top information technology software houses, Paraflow Communications built the system which is one of the major programmes in the judiciary strategic plan designed shortly after 1994.
Leave a Reply