Website Tracking How Courts Are Reacting to COVID-19

The UK government-backed initiative Remote Courts Worldwide aims to help members of the legal world share best practices on the use of technologies to keep courts operating during the COVID-19 pandemic:

"As the coronavirus pandemic spreads and courts around the world are closing, this website is designed to help the global community of justice workers - judges, lawyers, court officials, litigants, court technologists - to share their experiences of 'remote' alternatives to traditional court hearings."

"To ensure ongoing access to justice, governments and judiciaries are rapidly introducing various forms of 'remote court' - audio hearings (largely by telephone), video hearings (for example, by Skype and Zoom), and paper hearings (decisions delivered on the basis of paper submissions). At remarkable speed, new methods and techniques are being developed. However, there is a danger that the wheel is being reinvented and that there is unnecessary duplication of effort across the world. In response, this site offers a systematic way of remote-court innovators and people who work in the justice system to exchange news of operational systems, as well as of plans, ideas, policies, protocols, techniques, and safeguards. By using this site, justice workers can learn from one another's successes and disappointments."

"The service is a joint effort - hosted by the Society for Computers and Law, funded by the UK LawTech Delivery Panel, and supported by Her Majesty's Courts & Tribunals Service. It also builds on the community that was established at the First International Forum on Online Courts, held in London in December 2018, when 300 people from 26 countries came together to talk about using technology to transform the work of courts."

So far, the website has contributions from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the US, Singapore, India and Peru.