Online portal to lodge criminal and care and protection documents to

ONLINE PORTAL TO LODGE CRIMINAL AND CARE & PROTECTION DOCUMENTS TO GO LIVE

PENNY CROSER, STATE COURTS ADMINISTRATOR

The CourtSA portal for the Criminal, Special and Care and Protection jurisdictions will be launched on 29 August.

When CourtSA launches in the Criminal, Special and Care and Protection jurisdictions in addition to Civil and Probate, you will be able to use CourtSA to: • start a case such as a bail review, appeal or an application for intervention order, access a criminal case if you are the legal practitioner representing the party on the case • file documents on a case • view your past and future hearings • view filed documents such as applications, affidavits, orders and records of outcome

WHAT IS COURTSA?

CourtSA is a service that enables legal practitioners to lodge cases online and access information about their client’s case from anywhere at any time.

WHY HAS COURTSA BEEN INTRODUCED?

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 aims 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 information. CourtSA is transforming the way justice is delivered in South Australia, forming the foundation of a suite of services to be offered in the 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 to register a CourtSA account. You can create an individual or organisation account. If you already have a CourtSA account, you don’t need a new one for the launch of CourtSA in the Criminal, Special and Care and Protection jurisdictions. You can use your existing account.

If you work for a firm or organisation, you don’t need to create an account. Someone in your organisation will do it and invite you.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANISATION ACCOUNT?

In general, individual accounts are for those registering for themselves. Organisation 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 or organisation, you should not need to create an account, as you will be invited to join your law firm or organisation CourtSA account by your firms account administrator. For example, the South Australian Police, the Legal Services Commission, the Crown Solicitor’s Office, the Department for Child Protection and the State and Commonwealth Departments of Public Prosecutions all have organisation accounts with users attached.

Once you have created an account or been invited to join your law firm or organisation account, you can login and work through the home 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.

WHEN CAN I CREATE A COURTSA ACCOUNT?

You can create an account now. If you are a private practitioner who works in criminal defence then you should create your account prior to the go live date.

WHAT SHOULD I DO BEFORE CREATING AN ACCOUNT?

Before creating a new account you need to contact the Law Society of South Australia to update the email or address that is associated with the P or L code. The CAA receives information from the Law Society when P or L code details are updated and then update our case management system with this information.

WHAT IS CASE ACCESS?

You must have access to a case to view it and lodge any documents on it. A person can only access a case if they are: • Representing themselves • A practitioner representing a party • A barrister representing a party • A party represented by a lawyer

WHO CANNOT ACCESS A CASE IN COURTSA?

• Parent/s in a care and protection case • Media • Interested parties • A member of the public

HOW DO I APPLY FOR ACCESS TO A CASE?

You can request case access by logging into CourtSA and selecting ‘Access a case’ from the drop down menu, completing the ‘CourtSA Request access to a case’ form. You must provide a L code and P code when you fill out the form. A green

verification notification box will appear with the details of the case.

You will receive an email acknowledging you request. This is not your access. You will receive a second email with the link to the case.

HOW MANY CASES CAN I REQUEST ACCESS AT THE ONE TIME?

There is new functionality which allows you to request access to multiple cases as long as it is the same defendant. Just click on the request access to an additional case link within the form.

WHAT IS AN ADM NUMBER?

An ADM number is simply an administrative case number that is allocated to the case. This is the number Court Services use to process your request. It is not the case number you are requesting.

WHAT DO I DO IF MY REQUEST FOR CASE ACCESS IS URGENT?

Requests for case access are not immediate. Each request is manually reviewed. Requests for case access usually take 24 hours to be granted but may take longer where there is an increased volume of requests. It is advisable that legal practitioners seek case access as early as possible.

If your request for case access is urgent you will need to make the request using the ‘CourtSA Request Case Access Form’ CourtSA and then email CourtSA Registry Services using the enquiry@ courts.sa.gov.au email address noting in the subject of the email the ADM and that it is an urgent case access request. CourtSA Registry Services prioritise the processing of urgent case access requests.

WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR CASE ACCESS REQUEST ONCE IT IS SUBMITTED?

Services. When approved you or your organisation will receive a case access link. When it’s clicked, the case will appear to all users of the firm or organisation.

Click the link within the email to be directed to a CourtSA page with a confirmation notification. For the link to work you must be logged into CourtSA using the same email address as where the notification was sent. If you are logged in to another account, the link will not work.

Once you are logged in to CourtSA go to ‘My Cases’, find the case you wish to access and click ‘View Case’. Your Notice of Acting will be available under the ‘Documents’ tab.

Please note: when the link has been clicked, the case will be available to be viewed by all users in the law firm.

AS THE ACCOUNT ADMINISTRATOR DO I NEED TO ASSIGN A CASES TO A USER?

The CAA has taken on the feedback of the legal profession in relation to assigning a case to a user. When CourtSA launches in the Criminal, Special and Care and Protection jurisdictions, the information barriers which existed in CourtSA law firm accounts will be removed allowing all users in a firm to see all the cases in the firm. Users will be able to see: • ‘My Existing Cases’ which will have all the cases that they have been granted access to or initiated. • ‘My Organisation Cases’ which will have all the firm or organisation cases.

The ‘Assign a case to a user’. • functionality will be removed from law firm accounts.

Essentially, information barriers have been removed for criminal which means all users in the firm or organisation can see all the cases. It is up to the user to act properly and not access cases they don’t have a right to see.

If a law firm or organisation would like to request an audit to check what cases have been accessed by their users, then they can do so by contacting CourtSA Registry Services. The information that can be provided is limited to the date and time, IP address and page viewed or submitted.

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. In contrast, an upload requires that you upload your already completed document to CourtSA and provide some information about it. A large number of the Civil forms were smart forms whereas the majority of the criminal forms are uploads given the feedback provided by the legal profession around the Civil smart forms. Over the counter forms are paper forms which you lodge over the counter with Court Services. These cannot be lodged online through CourtSA.

WHAT FORMAT DO DOCUMENTS NEED TO BE IN?

CourtSA will accept standard office application types such as Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel). Draft orders should be uploaded as a word document.

IS THERE ANY GUIDANCE AS TO HOW TO LODGE FORMS?

The CAA website provides steps on how lodge prescribed forms.

WHAT HAPPENS TO A DOCUMENT THAT IS LODGED USING COURTSA?

Once a document has been lodged it will either be automatically accepted for filing or reviewed by Court Services. The

Courts are unable to comment on how long the review process might take given it can vary depending on staffi ng levels and volumes received. Please take case access approvals or document reviews into consideration for compliance with dates set out in the Rules.

WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM FILE SIZE THAT CAN BE UPLOADED?

The total size of all documents uploaded per form can not exceed 200MB. Affi davits (if large) can be split into individual volumes (not exceeding 20MB each) and each volume uploaded.

WHERE DO MY NOTIFICATIONS GET SENT?

There are a lot less notifi cations in the Criminal, Special and Care and Protection jurisdictions than they were in Civil and Probate. However, any notifi cations will be sent to the P code email address. WHERE CAN I FIND THE JOINT CRIMINAL RULES 2022 AND THE UNIFORM SPECIAL STATUTORY RULES 2022?

The Rules will be on the Courts Administration Authority website. If you need further guidance around rules or forms, please contact the Law Society of South Australia who are able to assist with any questions.

WHAT SUPPORT IS THERE FOR LEGAL PRACTITIONERS USING COURTSA?

A range of support is available for legal practitioners from written resources to videos. You can locate information about CourtSA on the CAA Website. The CAA website includes useful information on setting up your accounts, unlocking your account, resetting your password, updating your details, case access, inviting a user, how to use the CourtSA forms, types of cases you can start, how to lodge documents and a glossary. There are also videos to help you to navigate the system.

If you have questions, you can also contact the CAA via live chat on the CAA website, by phone (08) 8204 2444 or email enquiry@courts.sa.gov.au During this time of change there may be longer wait and process times. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

WHAT IF I USE COURTSA AND IDENTIFY SOMETHING I THINK SHOULD CHANGE?

The CAA welcomes your feedback and suggestions for improving CourtSA. Please provide this to the CourtSA Registry Services Team via email at enquiry@courts.sa.gov.au. There will be a continual process of improvement. An enhancement list is being maintained with suggested changes to CourtSA and additional functionality will be considered and if approved will be rolled out in future releases. B

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