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3.4. New South Wales


The principal responsibility for the provision of computing facilities to the
New South Wales courts is with the Department of Courts Administration. Until
1992 the principal development in NSW was Courtnet, an integrated registry
system for the three levels of the State's courts, based on access to a Prime
mainframe. There has been little coordinated development of litigation
support facilities for the judiciary, although Supreme Court and District
Court judges have been provided with personal computers and some litigation
support software. Computerised access to NSW cases and statutes has been
through the Info-One on-line system. It does not appear that the judiciary has
had the same degree of input into court computerisation as has occurred in
South Australia or Western Australia, and the facilities developed have been
more administration-oriented than judge-oriented. The environment in which
they were developed would have made it impossible to develop more
sophisticated functions. Considerable administrative changes in the Department
in 1992 are resulting in a different approach. An Information Technology
Strategic Plan is about to be released, and will include judicial support
initiatives: Horder (1993).


The Judicial Commission


New South Wales is the only State to have a Judicial Commission (Judicial
Officers Act 1986 (NSW)), the functions of which include the education of
judicial officers in the Supreme Court, District Court and Magistracy. The
Commission's principal involvement in providing computer facilities to the
judiciary has been in the development of the Sentencing Information System
(SIS) (see 7.3 of this Report for details). The Commission is providing
training and support ('help desk' facilities) in the use of the SIS by
judicial officers. The Commission considers that it has a role to provide PCs
to judicial officers in order to allow them to access the SIS, and is
considering providing portable PCs with internal modems and colour monitors.

The Judicial Commission has conducted some trials of litigation support
software, including programs such as Retrieve and ISYS. Members of the
Commission's staff have provided advice to judicial officers on the choice and
use of litigation support software, and have provided training, on request, in
the judicial officer's chambers. Copies of litigation support programs have
also been loaned to judicial officers. These arrangements have, however, been
very ad hoc. The Commission does not consider that the provision of litigation
support software is part of its continuing role. Training of judicial officers
in the use of information technology is seen by the Commission as within its
educational role. Its present training plans are, however, limited to training
in the use of the SIS, and then subsequently in computerised versions of its
Bench Books and Judicial Officers Bulletin. Information about information
technology is occasionally distributed through the Commission's publication,
the Judicial Officer's Bulletin (see, for example, Cooper (1988)).


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