AllAboutLaw blog: the digitisation of UK courts and tribunals, Sudan's first female judge and more

Oct 16, 2019

Written By Tuula Petersen

In this week’s edition of the AllAboutLaw blog, we look at the digitisation of the UK Courts (and the reluctance to proceed at full speed), the election of Sudan’s first female judge, and a case involving Domino’s Pizza and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The digitisation of UK courts—a step too far?

To help reduce the substantial amount of physical hardcopies and paperwork and to supposedly save legal professionals a considerable amount of time, UK courts and tribunals are increasingly looking to digitise. Whether it is the introduction of court Wi-Fi, the use of digitalised evidence files or the move to electronic filing and case management, it has become apparent digitisation is inevitable.

Lexis Nexis has already released a selection of tools designed to support the shift to digital courts. These tools include Lexis PSL, which works as an organisational tool, the Lexis Library, Lexis Draft, and webinars.

The digitisation primarily concerns the recommendation for an online court as stated by an ODR Advisory Report in Online Dispute Resolution for Low-Value Civil Claims. The online courts would be targeted at low-value civil claims in an effort to curb otherwise-costly and inefficient court proceedings.

First, users would be required to participate in an online evaluation, followed by online facilitation which would involve mediation and negotiation. Finally, if the issue is not resolved during the second stage, online judges would decide suitable cases or parts of cases largely on the basis of papers submitted to them electronically.

However, last week MPs were made aware that this £1 billion modernisation of UK courts will be delayed further because Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) has made less progress than anticipated. The project completion date, which began in 2016, has now been postponed to 2023. The main reason for the delay is the lack of testing and academic research to support this huge investment.

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“Hereby it appeareth, that Justice must have three qualities, it must be free, because nothing is more iniquitous than saleable justice; full, because justice ought not to limp; and speedy, because delay is in effect a denial]; and then it is both Justice and Right.”

Sir Edward Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England, 1809

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Firm News

Students have protested outside DLA Piper for the firm to drop arbitration agreements from employee contracts

Hogan Lovells’ partnership with Barefoot College, an Indian social enterprise to train rural women in solar engineering, will be featured at Expo 2020.

White & Case has expanded its number of partners, promoting 45 lawyers around the world.

Dentons has announced two “dual partnerships” with regional law firms Bingham Greenebaum Doll and Cohen & Grigsby.

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Sudan’s first female judge

The ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan has appointed its first female head of the judiciary. The Supreme Court judge Nehman Adbullah Khair was nominated by the judges’ professional association alongside Taj-Elsir Ali as the public prosecutor. The two newly-promoted judicial officials will be working to fight corruption in the state.

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Make sure to visit our jobs page for all the latest openings in the legal profession, whether that be vacation schemes, training contracts or brand ambassadors.

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Dominos pizza and the Americans with Disabilities Act

On the first day of the US Supreme Court’s second term, the justices rejected a case delivered by Domino’s Pizza over the summer. The case concerned the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities and arose when a blind man was unable to order a pizza on the company’s website or app. The pizza chain’s defence was that at the time of the enactment of the law in 1990, websites and mobile apps did not exist.

The court rejected this argument, agreeing with the plaintiff that the ADA should apply “ so long as the business contains physical locations in the US and is soliciting customers over the Internet.” Following the decision to disregard website accessibility standards, online businesses have not been affected by the judgment.

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AllAboutLaw blog: the digitisation of UK courts and tribunals, Sudan's first female judge and more

The digitisation of UK courts—a step too far?

“Hereby it appeareth, that Justice must have three qualities, it must be free, because nothing is more iniquitous than saleable justice; full, because justice ought not to limp; and speedy, because delay is in effect a denial]; and then it is both Justice and Right.”

Sir Edward Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England, 1809

Firm News

Sudan’s first female judge

Dominos pizza and the Americans with Disabilities Act

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