Coming from an IT background, I have many personal experiences helping my clients to integrate technology-driven solutions into their business. Hence, I am very well aware of how technology can help us to work more effectively, save costs, and simplify big ideas into a workable process. I am working full-time in a legal firm for about a year now, and I am bliss to notice that the Malaysia Judiciary System is not slow at implementing IT into its system. This article aims to express my observation on how technology helps to overcome some of the difficulties in the judiciary system.
The first thing we are going to talk about is the e-Appeallate system initiated by the Honorable Chief Justice of Malaysia Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat. The system was official starting August this year in the Federal Court and Appeal Court of Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak. The system helps to facilitate a paperless hearing in all the appeal cases going on hearing in Malaysia. Well, although, unfortunately, I am not being blessed with the opportunity to handle any appeal case in the firm yet, my experiences tell me a not complex litigation case can chew up tons of A4 paper, what more need to say to a complex case which goes up to the appeal level. Hence, the initiative not only creates an environment-friendly solution but also helps to cut down the cost of papers and printer cartridges for litigators.
The second thing we are going to discuss is the recent amendment to the Rule of Court 2012. In light of the pandemic, the government has introduced the Control Movement Order to combat the virus, due to that, access to justice had been greatly reduced for the past few months. Cases have been adjourned, services of documents have been rejected, and the announcement of judgments has been rescheduled. The P.U.A 351 which came into force on 15 December 2020 has been introduced to overcome the difficulty and resolve the backlog of cases caused by the virus. Some of the major changes related to technology are as below:
a) Inserting a new Order 33A to allow proceeding through remote communication technology. Remote communication technology has the same meaning assigned to it under the Court of Judicature Act 1964. The provision provides that any person or witness to a case can give evidence through remote communication technology. The new provision also provides that the court may direct that the proceeding to be broadcast to enable members of the public to see and hear the proceeding.
b) Amendment on Order 42 to include 'Where judgment or order is pronounced or delivered in the proceeding held through a remote communication technology, such facts shall be reflected in the judgment or order.'
c) Amendment on Order 10 and Order 62 to allow service to be done by means of electronic communication. To elaborate more, this would mean the service of documents can be done via email, Facebook, and other social media platform which are common to the public. I think that this rule is not without its problem such as the postal rule by electronic mail communication. In the meantime, what we can do is to wait for actual cases that go to the court for clarification.
d) Last but not least is the amendment to Order 63A which allow the service of documents to be done in the electronic filing system(efs-kehakiman). Individuals or companies who are represented by a lawyer can now accept the service of documents through the system without setback. However, the provision does not include documents that need to be served personally such as a writ summons or originating summons. There are others worth noting amendments to the rules which are not related to technology that I choose to omit in this article.
The third engagement of technology with the judiciary system is the e-review in the electronic filing system. People who have knowledge of how civil procedure works would understand that a case would not come to the trial stage without the proper case management direction coming from the court. Is a new norm now that even lawyers cannot walk freely in the court, because everyone can be a potential virus carrier that might kill a judge. How would a case proceed then after the initial filing? There are few solutions to address the problem varying from the preference of all the High Courts and Subordinates Courts in different geographical locations across Malaysia. Some courts will prefer to use Skype to conduct a case management by adding in the relevant parties and the case's registra into a group using the case number as the title. Some courts would prefer the lawyers to state their pleading and application in an email by copying to the relevant parties and judges. Lastly, some courts would prefer to use the e-review system in the electronic filing system to conduct case management. The advantage of using the e-review system is that there are standard forms ready to be filled up by the lawyers which help to provide a summary of each of the cases.
In conclusion, without the 3 new initiatives, things would have been completely stagnant during the few months of lockdowns. We are blessed to have a bunch of tech-savvy expert in the judiciary that helps to overcome and improve the system bit by bit. A big thumbs-up to you guys!
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