Australian courts move to strike paper waste

Australian courts are making moves to cut down on paper waste and the associated costs of storage and retrieval by adopting electronic records.

The Perth Magistrates Court will become Australia’s first criminal court to operate entirely from electronic records, the Western Australian government has announced.

The court will adopt the new Integrated Court Management System (ICMS), which is being developed by the state government as part of a project to make WA’s justice system paper free.

Western Australia’s government has so far invested $10 million to develop the ICMS and is trialling the system at the court’s arrest and remand court.

The department of the state Attorney-General has worked with the WA police to develop electronic prosecution notices and bail information, with hopes this system will be adopted state wide.

“This development represents the first step towards creating an electronic court system in WA - a move that will ultimately save the Magistrates Court from handling more than 100,000 paper documents a year,” Attorney-General Michael Mischin said.

“ICMS has been recognised internationally, with authorities in Michigan, USA, paying $1.5 million to WA for a one-off licence to use the system. Last week, the WA government also signed a $1 million agreement with the Australian Capital Territory to purchase and use ICMS.”

The Federal Circuit Court is also making moves to replace paper-based storage with electronic filing.

In an interview with Fairfax Media, Deputy Chief Justice John Faulks said storing the court’s volumes of paper records costs about $1 million per year. It can take up to three days to access required records, and doing so costs a fee each time.

He said the court’s Family Court plans to mandate electronic filing of forms by the second half of 2015.

A stack of all the documents stored by the Federal and Family courts would stretch 24 km high - nearly three times as high as Mount Everest.

Image courtesy of bloomsberries under CC