ST. PETERSBURG, May 21 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) — In 2020, electronic justice systems were used when considering more than 400,000 cases in Russian courts, Alexey Solokhin, Counselor to the Department of Systematization of Legislation and Analysis of Judicial Practice of the Russian Supreme Court said at the Digitalization and Cybersecurity in Courts track of the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum (SPBILF) 9 ¾. 

According to Solokhin, 2020 has shown the importance of the development of e-justice, which began to be gradually introduced since 2000. During the period of self-isolation, the proceedings continued thanks to many years of accumulation of respective experience. However, recently new opportunities appeared. Until 2020, remote participation in court sessions could be possible only via video conferencing, when a participant in the process had to come to court at the place of residence or stay, from where that participant was connected with the relevant court. Now a participant in the process can take part in the proceedings using a personal computer by connecting to the conference via the Internet, Solokhin said.

According to the speaker, in addition to the already routinely used procedures of submitting documents in electronic form, there is now available an option to remotely study case materials, audio recordings of hearings, as personal data are automatically excluded from the published sentences.  

The newly available options are included in a bill submitted to the lower house of the Russian parliament, Solokhin noted.

Another speaker at this SPBILF track, Angela Denning, Chief Executive Officer of Court Service of Ireland, who shared the national experiences in using e-justice, as well as digitalization and overcoming acute problems of caused by the need to guarantee cybersecurity.