The pilot version of the island’s e-Justice platform was finally launched on Tuesday with the objective of streamlining legal processes and doing away with the previous burdensome and time-consuming manual practices.
The pilot version of the long overdue move for the realisation of Cyprus’ digitalisation ambitions is to end on July 30, when the official launch of the platform should take place.
The platform’s launch was initially set for January 18, 2021, but had been postponed three times – sometimes for practical reasons and others because lawyers reacted due to the electronic transactions’ costs.
The Cyprus Bar Association and Ministry of Justice recently had a meeting on this, but no conclusions were reached. However, the lawyers gave the green light to the platform’s pilot launch as a sign of good will.
The e-Justice platform aims to bring together litigants, advocates, law firms, court staff, clerks, judges, the police and relevant governmental authorities so that justice is administered in an effective and expedient digital environment.
Manual processes – such as filings, payment of stamp duty or other levies etc – that currently overwhelm the entire judicial system are to be facilitated through an interconnected communications channel.
The e-Justice platform has been, therefore, specifically formulated to address the needs of the Cypriot court system, enabling the classification of documents – as unclassified, confidential or secret – and the online payment of fees.
