Legal Information Model
Increasingly over the next few years, people will be used to accessing information and dealing with organisations over the Internet, from their own home, and also through their mobile phone. Developments in this area are being led by sectors such as retail, banking and (some) travel, but Jersey may consider it important for its legal services to be as accessible as such private sector facilities are becoming. The time will come when many transactions can be carried out across the Internet and systems not available through this medium may begin to appear antiquated.
This relates to several of JLIB’s objectives such as: enhanced international reputation, ever-improving access to justice, and public confidence in the legal system.
6.1 Honorary Officers
6.1.1 Jurats and Centeniers
6.1.2 Contacting Centenier before Court
6.2 Public Internet Access
6.2.1 Public Kiosks
6.2.2 Citizens Advice Bureau
6.3 Publication of Information on Internet
6.3.1 Principle
6.3.2 Structure of Legal Websites
6.3.3 Entry to Legal Information Website
6.3.4 Court Rules and Procedures
6.3.5 Court List for Royal Court
6.3.6 Companies Register
6.3.7 Legal Information Model
6.3.8 Other Flowcharts
6.3.9 Brief User Guides
6.3.10 Directory of Law Firms
6.3.11 Citizens Advice
6.3.12 UK Legislation Extended to Jersey
6.4 Access to Legal Information - Human Rights
6.5 Intranet & Internet Access for States Police
It is recommended that the principle be adopted that honorary officers should find it as easy to access electronic systems to do their job as employees or ordinary citizens would. In particular this could be applied to Jurats and Centeniers.
Taking this as a principle (without considering questions of funding), it could mean that
· Jurats and Centeniers should have Internet access from their homes and/or via WAP phones (mobile phones with Internet access) rather than having to visit the Jurats’ Room/Parish Hall/Police Station;
· this should include Internet email access, and secure email access to any organisations they need to do their job (eg Centeniers to the States Police);
· other information systems should be available for them to access as appropriate;
· suitable training should be made available to Jurats and Centeniers to give them the opportunity to take advantage of this technology.
Defence lawyers sometimes need to contact the Centenier shortly before a Court session to discuss last minute issues, and this contact was said to be difficult sometimes. Whilst a Duty Centenier in each Parish is contactable each day, it is recommended that consideration is given to making the Court Centenier (if a different person) available prior to a Court session eg by mobile phone, if this is not already the case.
The provision of Internet access in public places would assist those people without suitable equipment at home. For instance, Internet kiosks in places like Parish Halls might be useful in this respect.
However, there are also a number of issues related to this area:
· co-ordination of legal information kiosks with other e-government initiatives;
· consideration of the longer term viability of kiosks in an environment where increasing numbers of people have access via TV or phone. States-wide consideration should be given to the degree of investment appropriate to what might be a diminishing asset.
It is recommended that JLIB co-ordinates with other States bodies in this.
It is recommended that Jersey Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) are provided with Internet facilities for clients at their premises to use, to allow personal callers to access and search the (extensive) CAB website, rather than the advisor having to locate and communicate information to the client if the client is capable of doing this him/herself. We understand funding is not currently available. (CAB is a charity, in receipt of grants from Health & Social Services Dept, but nevertheless independent of the States.) (This could be seen as supporting JLIB’s preventative legal health aims.)
A general principle, which may be adopted by JLIB, is to move away from public domain information being distributed, towards making it available for people to access as and when they wish, whilst publicising its availability to its target audience.
The current structure may be confusing in that the JLIB website appears to have little content, and most information is on the Legal Information website which appears to be a different entity. A single website, with links to and from related websites such as the Judicial Greffe’s, Citizens Advice Bureau’s, etc. may be clearer.
Consideration could be given to a number of routes into the lower levels of JLIB’s website, from the front page or a high level page, for different types of visitor, eg:
· the Jersey citizen:
o "I’ve been charged with an offence"
o "I’ve got a problem with my neighbour/employer/shop/family etc"
· "How do I find out what the law is about XYZ?"
· the Jersey company:
· the financial services company in Jersey
· the company abroad
o "What laws apply to this issue I have with a Jersey person/Co?"
o "What kind of lawyer should I seek?"
· the company abroad considering dealing with or investing in Jersey
· the citizen abroad
· the Jersey lawyer
· the foreign lawyer
· the person wishing to search the totality of information on the website.
The following sections 6.3.4 to 6.3.12 suggest types of information which might usefully be published on an appropriate Internet website, if not already available.
We understand that Royal Court Rules are being prepared for publication, and that Practice Directions have already begun to be published. Any further types of information on procedures in, and prior to, the Courts, including the Magistrates, Youth and Petty Debts Court, would clearly be useful.
The weekly Court List, produced by the Bailiff’s Secretary the Friday a week in advance, is currently published in paper format (including for the Press). The Table (the more detailed agenda for the Friday sitting) is already published on the Judicial Greffe Internet website; the Court List could also be placed there.
Searching for Companies currently has to be done (by lawyers) by visiting the Financial Services Commission and looking on microfiche. An online version would be helpful. This could also be helpful in enabling electronic submission of summonses and billets (eg by private litigants to the Petty Debts Court), as it could help ensure that the precise company name was correctly entered, and avoid actions being aborted due to disputes over details of company names.
As recommended in 8.4, parts of the Information Model produced in this study, in particular the high-level diagram of processes in figures 1 and 2 in section 2.3 and the 14 process diagrams in Appendix G, adapted if necessary, together with explanatory notes, could be presented on a website, as an introduction to the legal processes in Jersey.
Some more detailed flowcharts exist within the Judicial Greffe to illustrate particular aspects of a process. For example, the Samedi section has a detailed flowchart relating to procedures for taxation of costs; and the Magistrates Court Greffe has a flowchart showing the different types of case and reasons for remand within the Magistrates Court, with up to four separate presentations of the Accused. Selected such flowcharts may be considered for publication, to fill in a greater level of detail than the Information Model.
The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) website contains many short advice guides to common issues, and the Judicial Greffe website covers a number of issues from a user’s perspective, eg applying for Probate. There may be scope for further guides along the same lines, perhaps for subjects about which lawyers are typically consulted, eg matrimonial issues. These could also point to options for dispute resolution/arbitration/marriage guidance etc. and not only litigation.
The CAB compiled a list (from polling law firms two years ago) about each Jersey law firm’s areas of specialisation. This might be published electronically if it is not already available, with any further information or advertising details which law firms would wish to supply. Pricing guides or estimates for different types of work could be included if firms wished to supply this.
There may be advice which CAB would give to individuals personally which would not be available electronically. If it proved acceptable to publish such advice, these kinds of hints might be of assistance to the legal "consumer", albeit some of them might be hard to formalise. This might include advice such as:
· what "legal advice" is and is not;
· when a Solicitor or an Advocate is required;
· how to find a lawyer;
· obtain pro bono advice if available;
· obtain competitive quotations if engaging a lawyer privately;
· obtain a quotation as soon as possible, even if on Legal Aid;
· find a lawyer well in advance of your Court appearance;
· use a lawyer for divorce except in the simplest of cases;
· use a lawyer for a will or it may be invalid;
· if your opponent in the Petty Debts Court has a lawyer, the issue of whether you should engage one - if not, you may well lose; if you do, you may well have to pay whatever the outcome because of taxation of costs;
· in the Petty Debts Court, if asked whether you owe the money, if you say "yes" you have admitted liability and thereby lost the case: your reply should indicate that you are in dispute;
· in the Petty Debts Court, you can ask for the issue to be "put to proof", and what that means.
There are currently no plans to extend the electronic publication of Jersey legislation to include UK (and EU) legislation which has been extended to Jersey. It is understood that this would be an enormous undertaking and therefore cannot be a priority. However, it is understood that an index has recently been produced.
It is recommended that the above points are considered for enhancing the amount of information about the Jersey legal system publicly available on an Internet website or sites.
The recent Human Rights legislation, referred to by one interviewee as the most fundamental piece of legislation ever passed by the States, is understood to have potentially serious implications for many areas of government. One area concerns access to information.
It is recommended that JLIB examine ways in which the legislation will impact on the field of legal information, such as:
· rights of access to information about laws and the legal system in general;
· rights of access to information about any criminal or civil case which involves an individual, or to other records held relating to individuals by organisations within the legal system.
From a different angle, if new procedures are drawn up for dealing with Human Rights cases in Jersey, it is possible that these may introduce new processes, steps or information flows beyond those covered in this report.
More widely, whether or not a requirement of the new legislation, it may be desired to give parties or victims access to information about cases, eg when a case will come to Court, or when a person will be released from Prison. It is therefore also recommended that JLIB determine what information it is desirable to make available to the public, or to parties/victims/accused etc, from a civil rights point of view, irrespective of the new legal requirements.
It would be helpful for the Police Administrative Support Unit (ASU) to have email access via the States Intranet. For example, it would be helpful for the Police to be able to email the Magistrates Court Greffe, and for the Law Officers’ Department to be able to email the Police. Intranet connection currently awaits firewalls to safeguard access to the PNC (Police National Computer) which the Police ASU computers have links to; this may be resolved soon.
The Police ASU would also value electronic access to laws (statute and case laws), and to the Magistrates Court listings and the Royal Court listings. All of these are becoming available on the Internet, so this could be solved locally by obtaining Internet access within ASU (from a standalone computer if necessary).
These issues may therefore be resolvable by the States Police without requiring action from JLIB.
Larger-scale developments are also in train with the recent initiation of the Police Case Preparation System project, which should enable many information flows within and to/from the States Police to be converted to electronic form.