Judges given iPads to speed up cases

  SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTEMAILRATING

Twenty eight judges at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi on Monday received iPads and BlackBerry phones to improve efficiency in the delivery of justice. Photo/FILE 

By NATION REPORTER
Posted  Monday, July 30  2012 at  23:30

Twenty eight judges at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi on Monday received iPads and BlackBerry phones to improve efficiency in the delivery of justice.

Each of the judicial officers was handed an iPad 3 and a BlackBerry Torch.

The Judiciary acquired the gadgets for all the judges in the country.

Assistant High Court Registrar Lucy Njora said the intention was to enable judges to work “on the go”.

The assistant registrar showed the Nation the gadgets, which were then delivered to the judges in their chambers.

The iPads are Internet-enabled and have been uploaded with more than 100 applications, including the Kenya Law Reports, the Black’s Law Dictionary and the Holy Scriptures.

Judiciary public communications director Naim Bilal said the gadgets were acquired as part of the institution’s information and communication technology (ICT) strategy.

Use of ICT is one of the pillars of the Judiciary Transformation Framework, which Chief Justice Willy Mutunga launched recently.

Share This Story

  

Since the transformation began, the courts have slowly started adopting ICT in their work.

A summary of the recent 346-page judgment on boundaries cases was delivered to lawyers by e-mail immediately.

The High Court sent the full document to the in-boxes of the parties a few weeks later.

In May, Dr Mutunga also launched a special typing pool staffed with 62 copy-typists at the Milimani Law Courts. Proceedings are now being typed to free the courts of hard files and help judges work faster.

During the launch, the CJ said the Judiciary also intended to instal video and audio recorders in courtrooms to reduce the amount of time required to conclude a case.

At the same time, judges now have legal research assistants, who were recently recruited.

The researchers’ primary role involves digging out information relating to legal matters and presenting it to judges to use in their work.

Ms Njora said their duty was limited to providing advice.

“They don’t write judgments. They only offer legal opinion, which is not binding to the judges,” she said during an interview at her office at the Milimani Law Courts.