Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this workshop which launches a review of the island's legal system with particular emphasis upon the use of computer technology and modern communications in speeding up the processes of law and making life easier for all of us involved in the administration of justice. I think that there is now a general recognition that the administration of justice lies at the heart of the island's prosperity and wellbeing. It is obvious that the wellbeing of the inhabitants depends upon systems which are fair and efficient and which ensure that criminal justice is properly dispensed and that civil disputes can be expeditiously resolved. But more than that the success of the financial services industry, on which our economy now depends, is underpinned by an effective and respected judicial system. Allow the judicial system to become stuck in the past with ancient procedures and clumsy practices and the financial services industry will take its business elsewhere. We all have an interest in ensuring that the administration of justice in Jersey employs technology which places it at the cutting edge.
People have very mixed views about the impact of computers on our society and their introduction into the legal system just for the sake of it would be rightly greeted with suspicion and antipathy. I am certainly one of those who have a healthy scepticism for the over-enthusiastic embracing of IT. I now have my diary on the departmental computer and it takes me about a minute to find out whether I can have lunch with the Attorney General next Tuesday instead of the five seconds when I had a paper diary at my elbow. There are other advantages which outweigh the fifty-five seconds differential, but I make the point to emphasise that we should be looking for improvements rather than gadgetry which looks good but which slows us down.
Our objective today, and in the weeks and months ahead, is to investigate how computer technology can be used to the advantage of all involved with the law in Jersey. If that can be achieved it will be of benefit not only to professionals but also to the advantage of the public whom the legal system is designed to serve and protect.
I am delighted to welcome today representatives of such a wide range of organisations whose work is an integral part of the legal system or which brings them into regular contact with it. Inevitably, most are employees of the States, but this review is designed to be very much a partnership between the public and private sector and it is extremely appropriate that the legal profession should be represented and, through the IT sub committee of the Law Society, heavily involved in the review.
There will be many more meetings to be held before the review is complete and the whole process is likely to take many months, because our legal processes are steeped in traditions which will not easily be submerged by the tide of electronic progress. Nor indeed should they be, because our goal is to allow modern technology to merge with existing processes and to facilitate them rather than to take them over completely.
There can be no doubt however that the time is right to take advantage of the many positive opportunities presented by computer technology to improve the way in which we work. For many of us computers are an essential part of our working lives and many processes within the overall legal system depend heavily upon them. Yet so many of us become submerged under a mountain of paperwork as communications from one part of the system to another continue to operate in much the same way as they always did. [Demonstrate with one box of IXL files].
The workshop today is not intended to provide answers to all the problems, but rather to identify the problems, to hear suggestions as to how they might be solved, and to listen to some of the additional problems which might arise if we do not move forward with care. But my hope and expectation is that we should move forward as quickly as possible. The exercise is not designed to freeze the many initiatives which are already taking place to improve the work of individual departments and the way in which they interact with each other. If for one moment I thought that this workshop would lead to a clog upon the initiatives of others I would not wish to be party to it. On the contrary the purpose of the exercise is to facilitate initiatives of different departments and to ensure that they proceed under the umbrella of an overall strategy which is designed to ensure that the whole system moves forward in a co-ordinated way. It would be a shame if the legal profession were to introduce systems which ultimately prove to be incompatible with systems which the legal services department were to introduce in court. That being so, my intention is that at the end of the day there should be a timetable within which we expect to achieve the various agreed objectives.
I now ask Mike Bisson, who is working as a project manager for the States Computer Services Department and who will coordinate this process, to explain both how the project will work and what he has planned for us today.