COURTSA
Using CourtSA to lodge civil cases and documents online JULIE-ANNE BURGESS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, COURTS ADMINISTRATION AUTHORITY
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t is with excitement that the Courts Administration Authority (CAA) launched CourtSA in the Civil jurisdiction on Monday 18 May, 2020. In addition to Probate, you can now use CourtSA to: • start a civil case; • defend a civil case; • access your civil case; • receive notifications about your civil case; • find out about your civil hearings; and • view your orders, judgments and documents for the civil jurisdiction. As of Monday 21 September, 2020, it will be mandatory for legal practitioners to lodge cases and documents in previously the Civil jurisdiction via CourtSA. If you haven’t used CourtSA you are encouraged to take advantage of the transition period to use and become familiar with it and identify any changes that need to be made to the way you practice.
WHAT IS COURTSA? CourtSA is a service that enables court users to lodge cases online, access information about their case from anywhere at any time, and find out what they need to do at every stage of their court journey. It helps court users navigate their court experience by providing the ability to lodge cases online, information about what they need to do at each stage of their court journey, clearer communication about what the Courts are doing and why, and an electronic case file that keeps everything in one place and can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
WHY HAS COURTSA BEEN INTRODUCED? The CAA embarked on a project to
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replace its case management systems as they were coming to the end of their life and needed to be replaced. The old case management systems were difficult to enhance to comply with legislative reform and were no longer supported. In an age of fast internet and cutting-edge software, there is a growing expectation that services will be delivered digitally. By introducing a more streamlined, accessible, online court service, the CAA aim to make it more convenient for court users to interact with the Courts. This means making the Courts more accessible for everyone. It also means improving access to relevant information both before and during your case, so you no longer need to contact court staff by phone or in person to track your case, find out a trial date, or find out what to do. The introduction of CourtSA is kickstarting a fundamental transformation of the way justice is delivered in South Australia, forming the foundation of a suite of services to be offered in future.
WHAT DO I NEED TO USE COURTSA? CourtSA requires access to a computer, internet, scanner and in some instances a printer. You can use any modern browser (Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari) but Chrome is recommended.
HOW DO I USE IT? Everyone will use CourtSA differently. CourtSA is an electronic lodgement system, not a practice management tool. It is not intended to be used to draft and settle documents or to replace practice management software.
WHAT DO I DO TO GET STARTED? To get started you will need a CourtSA account. You can create an individual or law firm account. A law firm account is run by an account administrator who can grant law firm users access to cases that the firm has been granted access to. In general, individual accounts are for those registering for themselves. Law firm accounts are to be created by a representative of an organisation who can then invite people to join the account. If you are legal practitioner that is part of a law firm, you should not need to create an account, as you will be invited to join your law firm CourtSA account by your firms account administrator. Once you have created an account or been invited to join your law firm account, you can login and work through the welcome page options. If you would like access to a case, you need to request case access. There are instructional videos which show you how to use CourtSA. Please see the CourtSA Help Centre for more information.
HOW DO THE COURTSA FORMS WORK? CourtSA uses a combination of smart forms and uploads. A smart form requires you to enter your data directly into CourtSA. Using this data, CourtSA will create your court documents. Comparatively, an upload requires that you upload your already completed document to CourtSA and provide some information about it. Most lodgements to start a case are smart forms, whereas most lodgements completed after a case is started are uploads.
