IT system could be in place by end of next year
A new IT system for the Rolls Building could be in place by the end of next year, under a new £5m contract signed by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) this week.
The judges of the three jurisdictions in the building welcomed the announcement. An HMCTS spokesman said the new IT regime, supplied by Thomson Reuters, would “provide for online filing of claims 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere in the world. It will also provide for the subsequent electronic filing of statements of case and other documents, electronic listing capability and production of orders”.
Efforts to introduce working IT systems in the Rolls Building have been beset by problems. In April 2012, a project to introduce e-working had to be shelved due to “significant problems” despite about £9.5m having already been spent on it in the previous three years.
The Rolls Building, which houses the Chancery Division, the Admiralty and Commercial Court, and the Technology and Construction Court, opened on London’s Fetter Lane in 2011.