Case Study On E-Government

The Electronic Filling System is the Singapore Judiciary's electronic platform for filing and service of documents within the litigation process. In addition, it provides the registries of the supreme court and the subordinate courts with an electronic registry and workflow system; and an electronic case file. Recent enhancements have added a module which facilitates the conduct of hearing using documents that have been electronically filled.

The ERS provides the legal profession with a rudimentary online case file from which documents can be electronically filled with the courts or served on the other parties in a case. The EFS is also the source for electronic cause book searches that are provided through the litigation module of law-net.

The Electronic Filing System (EFS) was implemented by the Singapore Judiciary to provide a platform for Law Firms to file documents to the courts electronically over the internet. The EFS was specifically designed to fully exploit the electronic super highway to minimize not just the physical movement of people and paper court documents from law-firms to the courts, but also to leverage the benefits of electronic storage within the courts; ie faster document filing and retrieval  eradication of the misplacement of case files, concurrent access to view the same case filed by different parties, etc.

Within the courts, the EFS allows electronic documents to be automatically routed to the appropriate registry staff for processing. The system allows further routing within the courts e.g for approvals by the Duty Registry and a reply is then sent out by the registry staff which is routed back to the originating law-firm  This has enabled realizations of improvements in efficiency by minimizing paper flow to shorten case processing time. Fees payable by the law-firms for filing documents to court are deducted automatically by the EFS. The whole process is fast, convenient and efficient.

For the Law-firms, the EFS provides an electronic case file showing hearing dates and documents file by them, served on them or received from the courts. It also provides an electronic platform for the service of documents on other Law-firms. The EFS also allows for faster response as well as accurate and up-to-date information. Hence, other benefits of the EFS include the speedy inspection of documents electronically and the ability to request for and receive electronic extracts of documents via the internet. Electronic cause book searches and legal research are also available through LawNet, Lawyers can even obtain details of hearing fixtures via short messaging system using their mobile phone.

Within the court room, registrars make use of the EFS to conduct hearings in chambers electronically using EFS.