IT eyed to reduce court paperwork

 Currently, paper documents such as complaints and briefs for civil litigation should be submitted to courts and used in courts, in principle.
 Under the plan, people who are going to begin civil trials will be able to submit complaints and briefs by accessing a dedicated website that will be newly created on the internet by the courts. It is expected that the new system will boost convenience and promote paperlessness.
 The government mentioned greater use of information technology in court procedures in the “Future Investment Strategy” approved by the Cabinet in June last year. Since then, an expert council has continued consideration on the matter.
 As the expert council will soon submit a proposal, the government will begin considering a revision of related laws and the establishment of a system. The government aims to introduce such a system as early as fiscal 2020.
 Article 161 of the Code of Civil Procedure states, “Oral arguments shall be prepared in writing.” The law obliges people involved to provide complaints, briefs and documents related to evidence in the form of paper, in principle.
 When submitting the documents to the courts, people involved are required to directly deliver them, send them by postal mail or fax them to the courts. Under this system, there have been complaints about problems such as the time and expense of printing, postage or delivery fees, and securing places to store such papers.
 If submission of complaints and other documents via the internet is allowed, it can result in reducing burdens on plaintiffs, lawyers and other parties concerned, and can make court procedures speedier. The government will also consider building a system in which the courts manage trial records in an integrated manner.
The government is also considering a measure by which a teleconference system, which is now usable only among courts, will be connected to lawyers’ offices and other locations, aiming to reduce burdens on people who come to the courts from faraway places.
 At the same time, the government will carefully consider assistance measures for elderly people and others who are not accustomed to using personal computers, so that such people will not suffer any inconvenience.
 In the World Bank’s 2017 rankings on the ease of doing business, Japan ranked 23rd in the category of court procedures among 35 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
 The use of information technology in lawsuit procedures has been steadily increasing in the United States, Singapore, Germany, South Korea and other countries. Voices of concern have been raised in business circles in Japan that the nation will lag behind the rest of the world under the current style of court procedures, in which too much emphasis is placed on paper documents and face-to-face meetings.
 In 2004, the government introduced a system in which some court procedures, such as requests for changing dates of court sessions, could be conducted on the internet. But there were only two cases in which the system was used. The government discontinued operation of the system in 2009.