Hurrah to our Chief Justice, Anthony Smellie.

In his speech at the opening of the 2020 Law Courts last week, one of his insights is to see the introduction of an electronic ticketing system through which traffic offenders can instantly pay their fines rather than having to attend in person at the courts.

Obviously, if this is implemented, it will enhance the process for dealing with ticket offences, for example speeding, by an unnecessary court appearance.

Chief Justice Smellie pointed out the benefits of an automated process have been recognised for many years.

He said, “The intention is to allow for the electronic filing of traffic tickets into the courts’ JEMS [Judicial Enforcement Management] register, immediately as the tickets are issued by the officers on the streets. Persons who wish to simply pay the tariff instead of going to court may do so. The cases will then be completed, the files will be closed, and the RCIPS notified automatically, as soon as that is done,”

“It will obviously save a great deal of administrative time, effort and costs for both the courts and the RCIPS. I am pleased that the commissioner [of police] is reported to be as resolved as we are to achieve this and am more confident than ever that implementation will soon be a reality,” he added.

Another of the measures he would like to see put in place is an online public register platform to be placed on the judiciary website.

There already is a fully functional courts’ e-Filing and Jury Management Platform that is ready for the start of the pilot programme. Participation has already been agreed with some of the leading Cayman law firms in the e-filing pilot programme, The Chief Justice said instructions for its commencement will be issued soon.

He also pointed out that the online registers went back to 1995. This was the date when the modern Grand Court Rules were promulgated.

Access to court documents have been confined to the physical inspection of the hard-copy registers at court.

“For the moment, the website access will be ‘read only’”, Smellie said, “until an appropriate new fee structure to allow downloading and printing access can be agreed with Cabinet. A proposal for the new fees, which we propose to be less than the existing fees because of the saving of administrative costs, will soon be sent to Cabinet.”

The online service platform is already access to over 1,000 of the unreported judgments with the remaining 3,000-4,000 judgments to be added soon.

Already implemented is a facility for the electronic transfer of funds for child-maintenance payments and to pay traffic ticketing fines without the need to appear in Court.

I applaud you sir, by embracing the now available technology that will help our Courts do their job more speedily, and help with the backlog. A backlog that has been added to by other departments not realising the seriousness their inaction is producing.