---

Latest step in courts’ digitisation now live

The Courts Service has said that the Circuit Court’s family-law legal diary on www.courts.ie is now being automatically populated by a new internal unified case-management system (UCMS). 

This means that changes made by Courts Service staff in UCMS are being reflected on the Circuit Court’s family-law diary within ten minutes of input. 

The courts body says that, as a result, the Circuit Court family-law diary is the most up-to-date information source on court schedules. 

The move is part of several incremental steps being taken by the courts body to digitise the services it offers through its website.

Legacy systems 

The internal UCMS is replacing a range of legacy ICT systems (150 in total), jurisdiction by jurisdiction. 

This internal case-management system replaced the Circuit Court’s legacy family-law technology last year and is currently replacing legacy probate, Court of Appeal, and District Court family-law systems. 

The Courts Service says that the next step will be the introduction of a practitioner portal for Circuit Court family law in Dublin. 

The organisation says that it has been working closely with individual practitioners and their representatives on the development of the portal and has already introduced updates to the Circuit Court family-law diary based on feedback. 

Feedback 

Mark Dunne (head of digital, Courts Service) said: “Perfection is the enemy of good; we’re keen to get the new internal system and the external portal to users in working order as soon as we can. 

“We will then improve with updates based on user feedback, iterating and evolving the technology to meet user needs,” he added. 

Those with queries on the digitisation of services offered by Courts Service can contact portal@courts.ie.