Leveraging automation for prompt justice delivery system

Nigeria’s justice system, which comprises the police, courts, and correctional centres, faces perennial challenges ranging from a lack of database to inadequate access to legal information, pre-trial detention, as well as poor living conditions in custodial centres. But the Lagos judiciary, leveraging technology, amid its teething problems, may be setting the right precedence, YETUNDE AYOBAMI OJO reports.

Like the other arms of government in the country, the judiciary that administers the nation’s laws is beset with peculiar challenges, which have clogged the wheel of justice administration for so many years.

These challenges are numerous, and they range from executive suppression to intimidation, corruption, insecurity, lack of judicial automation, and inadequate training for support staff.

Others include, delay in the dispensation of justice owing to adjournments of cases for lack of witnesses; poor quality and reliability of forensic evidence; lack of database and analytics; inadequate access to legal information and case status for defendants; congestions in the custodial centres, as well as alleged lack of transparency in its recruitment process.

There is also the lack of technological gadgets; inefficiency and delays due to reliance on paper records and manual workflows, and lack of integrated information systems and data sharing across criminal justice agencies. These and many other factors slow down the pace of justice dispensation.

The criminal justice system
In the criminal justice system, law enforcement agencies play the significant role of protecting the public, arresting suspected law violators, enforcement of extant laws, and the prevention of crimes commission.

The court, on its part, is responsible for ensuring that suspected criminals receive fair trials and determine the guilt or innocence of accused persons. It also has the inalienable right to adjudicate civil disputes and award compensations and damages as the case may be.

The goal of the correctional unit is to rehabilitate offenders or to alter their behaviour so that they are socially acceptable and become law-abiding citizens. Ultimately, the purpose of all the three subsystems is to reduce crime in the country.

However, the criminal justice system struggles with congestion and delays across law enforcement agencies, courts, and correctional facilities. Resources available to the police are overstretched leading to slow response and inefficient investigations, while the court is bedevilled by the backlog of cases with overburdened judges and magistrates, as well as limited courtroom capacity.

Custodial Centres filled beyond capacity
Another challenge confronting the legal system is that most custodial centres are filled beyond capacity. For example, there are a total of 250 correctional facilities in Nigeria. As of September 2023, most of them in Lagos were filled beyond capacity.

For instance, the Badagry Correctional Centre can accommodate 320 inmates, but there are over 448 inmates in it. The Ikoyi Correctional Centre has 3,466 inmates as against its 800-man original capacity. The Kirikiri Female Custodial Centre presently holds 307 inmates, whereas its actual capacity is 271. The Kirikiri Medium Correctional Centre is playing host to over 3,139 inmates instead of 1,940 that it was erected to accommodate, while the Kirikiri Maximum Prison has 2,034 instead of 1,056.

The Oregun Correctional Centre has the capacity for 120 inmates, but it presently harbours only 88 while the Borstal Training Institute quarters 502 inmates, instead of the approved 250.

From the foregoing, it is only the Oregun Correctional Centre, which is managed by the Lagos State Government that is not congested. It was upgraded in 2020 to its current capacity.
Failure of criminal justice delivery undermining public safety, access to justice, others
To ensure proper dispensation of justice in its jurisdiction, the Lagos State Government, in 1999, started a radical reformation of its judicial system. This reformation continued till 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

Indeed, one of the critical setbacks that the pandemic had on justice administration was the courts’ inability to operate from designated courtrooms, which is the standard stipulated in the 1999 Constitution.

In specific terms, the constitution requires that court proceedings must be held in public, but in 2020, it became impossible to converge on courtrooms owing to the resultant lockdown. To circumvent this provision, the court had to adopt the Doctrine of Necessity, after which the Supreme Court sanctioned virtual court sittings in the judgment delivered by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour.

Consequently, Practice Directions were issued by heads of courts to regulate virtual proceedings. In May 2020, the Chief Judge of Lagos State followed suit and issued Practice Directions, and Lagos fully began to deploy technology to improve its justice delivery system. Other states across the federation have since jumped on the bandwagon.

Impact of technology on justice delivery
The effects of the digital age and the influence of information technology are simply overwhelming as judges, lawyers as well as litigants now richly feel its advantages in the Nigerian legal system.

Before the advent of ICT, the means of storage of information was through the hard copy in book form or typescript. The traditional approach in some jurisdictions was to regularly produce an up-to-date version in the form of one edition of the laws enforced at a particular time. It is now possible to keep both legislation and law reports not only in hardcopy form but also in digital formats, like CDs, DVDs, flash drives, and other storage media.

Furthermore, online (Internet/Intranet) or on a stand-alone machine, makes it much easier for a judge or members of the public to search and obtain resolutions faster both at trial and on appeal as a result of the easy availability of the record of the trial. When judges are relieved from recording proceedings, they pay more attention to the demeanour of the parties, and this helps them to arrive at fair and just conclusions. Case management remains another means of improving speed in adjudication.

Technology is also a great help in tracking cases and all needed information timely.

Judicial automation, the Lagos example
Although it is yet to perfect its act, the Lagos State Judiciary has always been a pacesetter in the country’s judicial landscape, and its innovations are copied by other jurisdictions that are bent on simplifying their court processes, as well as ensuring justice dispensation.

For instance, the Lagos State Judiciary introduced the use of auto-recording microphones, voice recorders, and e-filling of cases. This was upgraded after the COVID-19 pandemic. It also introduced e-assessment, e-commissioner of oath and virtual hearings. With remote court sittings and virtual hearings, Lagos state judiciary has put to rest the issue of the non-availability of witnesses to testify in a case due to the distant location of the witness. It uses remote hearings where the judges sit in open courts, while witnesses and lawyers connect via a video link.

In fact, all high courts in the state are fully equipped for virtual hearings, and 20 remote hearings can be conducted contemporaneously.

The total number of cases so far taken via remote hearing in the High Court is 1,787, while 587 cases are already scheduled.

Since its introduction, the Lagos Division has recorded 56.3 per cent of remote hearing, while the Ikeja Division recorded 43.7 per cent. General civil matters amount to 29.4 per cent, criminal 14.6 per cent, and land disputes 9.0 per cent.

In family and probate, it recorded 20.7 per cent, trials 0.1 per cent, case management conference 0.1 per cent, while commercial/fast track recorded 26.1 per cent.

Despite what it has so far achieved, the Lagos State Chief Judge, Justice Kazeem Alogba, hinted that the state judiciary is still working to improve the systems.

He said: “We will continue to leverage technology to advance the administration of justice in Lagos most especially, criminal justice. The state also aims to consolidate the different systems the judiciary operates into one system.

“We need to make fundamental changes to our IT systems. For instance, e-filing, remote court sitting/virtual hearings, bail management systems and crime data registers. With the acquisition of the ProCAT Impression Writer eSeries, our court reporters are trained to meet international stenography speeds and industry standards by producing up to 250 words in one minute.

“The preceding shows that the Lagos Judiciary is tech-savvy. It uses a blend of administrative and procedural tech systems to resolve problems with the criminal justice system,” he said.

In February 2023, the CJ inaugurated the Court Management Information Systems and Services (CoMiS) to automate Magistrates’ Court system to create electronic case files to supplement, and replace paper records.

CJ Lagos, Kazeem Alogba

“At full operations, CoMiS will digitise operations in all the Magistrates’ courts and establish an integrated criminal justice database. It aims to solve the problem of inefficient processes and delays due to reliance on paper records and manual workflows,” he noted.

On the Lagos State Criminal Information System (LCIS). Justice Alogba explained that it is a crime data register that contains information about defendants who have either been convicted, awaiting trial, or whose trials are ongoing. He said that it is designed to capture, store, and provide access to information such as physical, personal, and biometric fingerprint details and photographs of defendants and convicts.

Lawyers lament delays in e-filling processes
The quartet of Dr Yemi Omodele; human rights activist and political analyst, Mr. Kabir Akingbolu; publisher, Mrs Layi Babatunde, and Prince Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon, not only shared their thoughts, and suggested further means of improving the system, but they also maintained that technology has effectively made the storage and retrieval of legal documents easier with electronic filing systems, and minimised the risk of losing vital documents compared to the manual operations of the past.

But Dr Omodele is also of the view that technological application in the Lagos Judiciary needs to be overhauled to bring it up to speed.

According to him: “Each time there is a network problem, there is the inability of the system to connect with the bank system, and this has often caused setbacks. At times, lawyers and litigants have to go to the banking hall to make payments after which it takes several hours to print alphabetical receipts.

“Some banks even refuse to accept payment to the judiciary’s account claiming the absence of network. Where are we going? I suggest that the system should be allowed to work smoothly, while persons who are causing such delays and frustrations should be sacked.

“Technology should not control us, we are to control it. You cannot file court papers in Lagos State Judiciary within one hour. To file new suits takes two to three days based on the frustrating technology. Drastic steps should be taken to resolve this without further delays.”

For Akingbolu, the introduction of ICT in the filing of legal processes in Lagos is highly commendable and heart-warming because it is the first of its kind in the country.

He said: “Automation makes it possible for every court process to be accessible in soft copy, and possible also to monitor the same. Unfortunately, the e-filing is so cumbersome that it can take up to several weeks, or a month to complete the filing of a single process.

“This state of affairs is highly frustrating and discouraging. It is also a serious hindrance to the smooth running of the wheel of justice. This is because a party who needs to file a process to correct a legal wrong may be disappointed, or get frustrated if he is not able to file his case within time to militate the violation of his right.

“Therefore, the system needs a complete overhaul. However, we must commend the chief judge for the e-filing innovation, which is the first of its kind in the country. It should be emulated by other states’ judiciary.”

Shyllon contends that e-filing is yet to meet the high expectations for which it was introduced, adding that “even though we must admit that it is still very much better when compared to what used to exist in Lagos, with the paper-based filing system. Lawyers are, therefore, still yearning for some important yet-to-be-met expectations of the new e-filing system. This includes facilitating greater convenience for lawyers and litigants in filing their cases from anywhere in the world, and at any time of the day. It would be beneficial for lawyers and their clients who live outside Lagos.

“Kudos must still be given to the Lagos State Government and its judiciary for pioneering the e-filing system in Nigeria, notwithstanding its current problems, which are creating nightmares for practising lawyers.”