Computerization Project

automation-ddit

Digitalization of court records is an intervention aimed at addressing issues of missing court case records. With this intervention, every physical record has an equivalent electronic version which can be reproduced should the physical file go missing.

This has significantly reduced complaints of missing case records in jurisdictions where this system has been deployed.

The table below highlight court registries that have been computerized as at 31st December 2019:

Lusaka

Registry Records Scanned
1. Supreme Court Civil Registry 5,276
2. Supreme Court Criminal Registry 1,601
3. Constitutional Court Registry 170
4. Court of Appeal Civil Registry 1,683
5. Court of Appeal Criminal Registry 637
6. High Court Commercial Registry 7,178
7. High Court Principal  Registry 31,868
8. High Court Criminal  Registry 5,462
9. High Court Industrial Relations Division Registry 2,652
10. High Court Family Division Registry 1,884
11. Subordinate Court Civil Registry 19,044
12. Subordinate Court Criminal Registry 18,825
13. Small Claims Registry 2,082

 

Kitwe

Registry Records Scanned
1. High Court Civil  Registry 6,642
2. High Court Criminal  Registry 985
3. High Court Commercial Registry 133


Ndola

Registry Records Scanned
1. High Court Civil Registry 5,898
2. High Court Criminal  Registry 1,811

 

Each computerized courtroom has the following installed equipment:

Projector: Used to display court exhibits to public gallery;

LCD Screens: Used to display proceedings and exhibits to the bench and the bar;

Public Address System: Consisting of microphones, speakers, mixers and amplifiers used to increase audibility in the court;

Audio Recorder: Used to record court proceedings;

Computer: Used for submission of electronic exhibits in various formats on CD, DVD, USB Drives or SD Cards;

Document Camera: Used to capture, display and present physical exhibits in court;

Annotation Monitor: Used to visually highlight important aspects of exhibits being presented in court.

Self-Service Kiosks, Causelist Displays and Electronic Attendance Systems have also been implemented in some stations

The following are the courtrooms that have computerized under this programme:

Lusaka

Supreme Court – 2 Courtrooms

High Court – 4 Courtrooms

Magistrate Court Complex – 2 Courtrooms

Industrial Relations Court – 1 Courtroom

Kitwe

High Court – 2 Courtrooms

Ndola

High Court – 1 Courtroom

Magistrates Court – 1 Courtroom

This has significantly reduced the lead-time it used to take adjudicators to write judgments as proceedings taken in court are now made available just hours after hearing.

Previously, proceedings were handwritten and in most cases took several weeks to transcribe and error-correct before they were made available to adjudicators.