How Far Are We From Fully Digital Courts?

Over the weekend, The National Post featured an article on Digitizing the law on the potential of technology to make courts more efficient and open:

"For centuries, little has changed in the way courts conduct trials, said Karim Benyekhlef, a law professor at the Universite de Montreal"

"He pictures a lawyer from the 18th century feeling right at home pleading in most Canadian courtrooms. But as excessive costs and clogged courts make it harder for people to access justice, pressure is growing to tap into the potential of technology to transform the courtroom."

"The Universite de Montreal last week inaugurated a $6-million cyber-justice laboratory, directed by Mr. Benyekhlef, to examine how technology can improve the administration of justice."

"The provincial and federal governments funded the fully wired model courtroom. Researchers plan to stage trials in which electronic document filing will replace the mountains of paper usually generated and witnesses will be able to testify via video. They will even experiment with holographic technology to project a three-dimensional image of a remote witness into the courtroom. The biggest obstacle to moving the courtroom into the 21st century is not the technology but the legal profession's aversion to change."