Digital Justice

Let’s start with the small claims courts that deal with civil matters.

Current system of dealing with civil matters:

Where it stands, a complainant or plaintiff has to not only go to his/her local small claims court and file the necessary paperwork and pay the required fees for filing the paperwork with the courts, but the defendant, whoever it is and wherever the defendant is located, has to make a special trip down to the local small claims court in order to defend him/herself in the small claims court. This adds time and expense of having to drive or travel down to the court house where the complaint was filed, and even though the defendant has the option to not make an appearance at the small claims court, the case can and may be ruled in favour of the plaintiff. This is how I understand the process to be in the American small claims court system, and I assume it is a similar scenario with small claims court from around the world.

Also, there is the inconvenient truth that all of the evidence that is required by a small claims court to strengthen a plaintiff’s case so that the ruling will more likely to be in the favour of the plaintiff, is to be presented as hard copies. This means that there is waste of paper that could be better put to use towards something else that is useful.

I do believe that there is a better way to approach this where the option for the defendant to still not make an appearance to defend him/herself in small claims court is offered. There is a way to streamline this process where the plaintiff can simply file a complaint from wherever the plaintiff is located at the time of filing the complaint, and the defendant is located somewhere else. However, this new streamlined process will only work when the plaintiff meets certain requirements for the complaint to be accepted and processed by the courts.

The new streamlined process or system of dealing with civil matters:

The new proposed system of streamlining the process of dealing with civil matters in the small claims court will not only make it easier for a plaintiff or a complainant to file a complaint in their local or national small claims court, but it will utilise existing technologies to make this happen: meaning that there is no need for an infrastructure overhaul of the court system. If this process proves to be successful in the small claims court level, then this can be successfully adapted into the criminal courts process.

• Plaintiff visits a website and selects his/her local small claims court from a list after the website detects their current location.
• Plaintiff then files a complaint using the same process as he/she would when actually in a small claims courthouse.
• Plaintiff submits evidence relevant to the case digitally by uploading all documents in digital format to the website.
• The digitally uploaded documents, along with the plaintiff’s complaint and any relevant contact details that the complainant provides is then forwarded to a randomly selected judge, who will  then go over the evidence and reach out to the defendant named in the complaint.
• The defendant is then given an opportunity to upload their evidence that is relevant to the case on to the same website so that the judge can cross check with the evidence already submitted by the plaintiff.
• The judge then arranges a video conference call with both the plaintiff and the defendant to hear both sides of the argument/story.
• The judge will then deliver a verdict in the same video conference call in the same manner that he or she delivers the verdict in an actual courtroom.
• If the defendant fails to respond to the judges invitation to the video conferencing call, then the judge will rule, based on the evidence submitted by both parties (if the defendant has submitted their evidence already).
• If the defendant is absent and has not submitted any evidence in his/her defence, then the judge will have no choice but to base his verdict on evidence submitted by the plaintiff, which may be circumstantial.
• The defendant is then advised of the verdict, if the defendant was not at the conference call via email or post.

You may have to read the above list more than once to make sense of it, but it does spell out the basic structure of the new streamlined process for dealing with civil matters.

Now on to the requirements of filing the complaint:

• The plaintiff filing the complaint must be a permanent/legal resident of the country where the complaint is filed (assuming this is against a citizen or business in that country), who has resided in the country for more than 90 consecutive days.
• The plaintiff must supply evidence of his/her legal status in the country or the complaint will not be accepted for processing.
• The plaintiff cannot be a visitor or a tourist to the country when filing the complaint against the intended defendant.
• The plaintiff must supply any government issued identification (it’s okay if that identification was not issued by the federal government of the country he/she resides in) to verify their identity. This will be authenticated or verified with the government that issued the identification.
• All documents uploaded digitally to the website must bear the contact information of the plaintiff so that the randomly assigned judge can verify or clarify the details of the complaint.

This is only the start and I cannot stress enough the beauty of this system: the use of existing technologies, infrastructures and the processes already in place. It will also save a considerable amount of time and money in commuting for both the plaintiff and the defendant.

The system is not fool proof as there is potential for fraud to occur, but I am confident that there are technologies already in place that will detect this form of deceit, resulting in fewer cases of evidence fraud, and the sooner this new system is implemented and widely accepted and used, the better.