Previous Document


                                 1.


                            Introduction



Speaking after recording not guilty verdicts in the Blue Arrow trial, which
had run for more than a year and cost an estimated 40 million pounds, Mr
Justice Brook said that English judges must learn new techniques, particularly
computer skills, if they were to cope with the problems of 'very large and
complex' criminal trials. His Honour is reported as commenting that:

   "It is, I believe, incumbent on English judges to be willing to learn
   new techniques if they may make such a substantial difference to the
   length of a trial or to the overall cost of the proceedings."
   ...
   The role of the judge in such proceedings was absolutely essential. It
   was a "very heavy" management responsibility, comparable to the
   management of a complex business project worth millions of pounds.
   "It is in my view essential that the trial judge is provided with all
   the help he reasonably needs, including training in computer skills
   and trial management skills, if necessary, to carry out his duties,"
   he said. To help him with the "enormous intellectual and physical
   burden" of summing up at the end of the two long trials he thought he
   would have to preside over, the Lord Chancellor's department had
   planned to provide him with an assistant skilled in computers. Both he
   and the assistant would have received intensive training in the use of
   the latest computer software. Mr Justice Brook said he would also have
   made use in court of a lap top computer which had never been
   previously used in a major criminal trial in Britain. It would have
   provided an edited form of the transcript within 20 seconds of a
   witness's words being spoken. ... (Howe (1992))
   
Six years after Lord Roskill's identification of a 'mood bordering on despair'
(Aronson (1992) p1) in relation to serious fraud trials in the United Kingdom,
it seems that the judiciary there, while continuing to despair, is looking to
information technology to solve some of the problems of complex criminal
trials.

Why are they doing so? Other than factual complexity, the most striking
feature of a complex fraud investigation is said to be 'the huge volume of
complex, confusing and often incomplete documentation...' (Livermore (1992)).
One of the defining characteristics of the 1980s was the popularisation of
information technologies. This was led by personal computers, but just as
important were the development of faster and more reliable photocopying, fax
machines, laser printers, 'desktop publishing' and street corner quick
printing shops. Australian society is well known for its rapid acceptance of
new technologies, and Australian businesses in the 1980s embraced information
technologies.

It is not surprising that the complex fraud investigator of the
1980s who envisaged chasing the 'paper trail' is now confronting a
'paper avalanche' with some dismay. The complex criminal 
trial of the nineties is, to some extent, a trial of how the            [PP2]
law can cope with the information technology of the eighties. While
accepting Aronson's comment that

   There is nothing new about serious or complex business fraud. It was
   not novel when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720. (Aronson (1992),
   p3),
   
it is likely that complex frauds in the 1990s and beyond will involve more
numerous and complex collections of documents, and electronic records, than
could ever have been generated in the past.

If the problems are caused in part by information technology's explosion of
documentation, then it is inevitable that the use of information technology to
control the documents will play a vital part in the solution. There is
probably no alternative but for investigators, prosecutors and the Courts to
embrace information technology if complex trials are to proceed.

The challenges will not stop with the adoption of technologies to manage paper
documents. In the face of electronic funds transfers, electronic
communications and records stored nowhere but on computer media (Investigators
Working Party (1992)), investigations and trials will increasingly have to
deal with 'paperless transactions'. The backup tapes of a failed company are
already being used in one Australian investigation to re-create its exact
financial situation day-by-day.



                                                            Next Document