Finding Needle in the Case-Stack: Effective Remote Monitoring of Courts

Abstract

Delay in the judicial processes and pendency of existing cases is an old problem that has defied easy solutions in Pakistan. Most cases are trapped in the system due to a huge backlog of cases, excessive litigation in urban areas, corruption by the court staff and lack of proper monitoring of the functioning of courts. Efficient supervision and monitoring of courts can help in resolving some of the key problems in the system. We present preliminary results from a novel case record-keeping, management and monitoring solution that is able to meet several key performance goals of the National Judicial Policy. The overall aim of the work is to facilitate the work of the monitoring judges by helping them find the proverbial needle in the haystack and not get deluged by the volume of data routinely produced by the typical case-management systems.In this paper, we explore the application of intrusion detection techniques, such as the statistical anomaly detection schemes, to case management systems and present the results from our extensive case studies. Our proposed system, now in pilot, shows high accuracy in flagging anomalous cases, reduces the overall volume of information generated by the system and can help target several of the key reasons behind case pendency while bringing much needed transparency to the overall case-flow.

Impact of e-court systems implementation: a case study

“…Bueno et al (2003) support that automatic allocation guarantees even distribution of cases over judges. Studies such as (Hamin et al, 2012;Rahman et al, 2014) supported that the automatic generation of case statistics in the court management system provides uniformed reports in addition to robust results. Helmi (2019) supported that electronic registration of cases ensures a faster process.…”

“…Helmi (2019) supported that electronic registration of cases ensures a faster process. Reiling (2011;Rahman et al, 2014) emphasized the significant role of electronic case movements for the courts. Luzuriaga and Cechich (2011) noted that the electronic notification feature ensures faster information publishing.…”

“…The remote access extends judge availability and the automatic case movement in the system plays an essential role in transferring cases between courts of different levels. They also noted that electronic registers allow tracking and searching more efficiently and transparently while providing robust statistics (Rahman et al, 2014).…”

“…The current challenge identified in the relevant literature on the technology integration with justice systems is that they are more concentrated on descriptive studies, presenting knowledge in relevance to the system description and design, system prototype and specifications (Meng et al, 2007;Rungruangpattana and Achalakul, 2008;Saman and Haider, 2013). Marginal studies exist to define the efficiency improvements concerning the time, cost reduction, process efficiency and user satisfaction toward the information system (Motsaathebe and Mnjama, 2009;Luzuriaga and Cechich, 2011;Hamin et al, 2012;Yahya et al, 2013;Rahman et al, 2014;Agrifoglio et al, 2016;Hayashi and Wakabayashi, 2017;Hou et al, 2017;Mosweu and Kenosi, 2018;Singh et al, 2018). Additionally, they only presented experiences from Asia, Africa, America, Europe and Australia, where most countries are developed and technologically advanced governments.…”