New digital court portal now being piloted in Dublin

The ‘Courts Portal’ has today gone live on a pilot basis in the Dublin Circuit Family Law Office and is intended to eventually be expanded to all courts in the State.

“Once we’re happy with Courts Portal for Circuit Court family law in Dublin we will move out of the pilot stage and roll-out the Courts Portal for Circuit Court family law nationwide,” said Owen Harrison, chief information officer at the Courts Service.

“After this we will then move to the next addition to the portal which will be for probate and so on.”

To pave the way for the pilot, new Digital Court Rules have been adopted by the Superior Courts, Circuit Court and District Court rules committees and signed into law.

The Digital Rules allow for end-to-end digitisation of court processes and make online filing, payments and serving of documents possible, which are all key features of the new Courts Portal.

The rules make provisions for a statement of truth — the equivalent of an online affidavit — and digital serving.

Mr Harrison said: “We have worked with Courts Service staff, judiciary and practitioners over the last number of months and years to get to this point.

“Last year we introduced a new case management system for Courts Service staff in Circuit Court family law. This was followed by the development of a judicial version of the case management system which is also currently in pilot.

“Prior to commencing the portal pilot for Circuit Court family law, we completed extensive engagement with practitioners to understand their systems and ways of working.”

He added: “This is only the beginning. We’re keen for practitioners in Dublin for Circuit Court family law to log onto the Courts Portal — accessible from courts.ie — so that they can start e-filing.

“As soon as they do this, we want to hear from them as we plan to upgrade and iterate further, as we get feedback from practitioners.”

The Courts Service is taking an “agile” approach to the project and will “improve and build as we go”, he said.

Speaking about the work of the rules committees, Mr Harrison also noted: “The rules committees, who are made up of the judiciary and legal practitioners, took a very thorough approach to the Digital Rules and their implications.

“In addition to inserting a new set of rules enabling digital processes, they advised for the consideration of several amendments to the general body of Rules of Court.

“For example, those rules which deal with issuing of summonses, service, entering appearances and perfection of orders, to ensure that there is no conflict in our new digital rules with the rest of the Rules of Court.”