FEATURE
CourtSA's launch in the criminal jurisdiction
W
e sat down with CourtSA Executive Director, David Connoley, to find out everything you need to know about CourtSA’s 28 February, 2022 launch in the criminal jurisdiction. What is CourtSA? CourtSA is the Courts Administration Authority’s electronic case management system. It is already being used in the civil and probate jurisdictions and is now being launched in the criminal jurisdictions of the Magistrates, District, Supreme and Youth Courts to enable lawyers to view cases and electronically view and lodge documents. When is CourtSA launching in the criminal jurisdiction? Monday 28 February, 2022. What won’t I be able to do using CourtSA? • Access a case you’re not a party to • Communicate with the Court • Lodge documents that cannot be scanned and uploaded • Perform criminal history checks • Request to have your hearing adjourned (without the consent of the other parties) • Serve documents • Store and view evidence in court or anywhere else (CourtSA is not an evidence management system) • View certain documents on Intervention Order cases • View Committal Briefs • View Facts of Charge • View Offender History Summary Report Will lawyers have to use CourtSA? A decision is yet to be made.
RULES AND FORMS What Rules and Forms will apply? The Joint Rules Advisory Committee are in the process of drafting new Joint Criminal Rules and Forms (Joint Criminal Rules) which will apply to the Magistrates, District, Supreme and ERD Courts. The Joint Criminal Rules are expected to come into effect to coincide with CourtSA’s launch on 28 February, 2022. Can the current Rules and Forms be used after 28 February, 2022? No, once the Rules come into effect,
24 THE BULLETIN November 2021
they must be used in CourtSA and over the counter lodgements.
LISTINGS Will there be changes to criminal listings when CourtSA launches? Yes, in the Magistrates Court there will be no trials in March and: • 28 February – 25 March: Lists will be limited to 40 matters per day • 28 March - 8 April: Lists will gradually increase • 11 April onwards: Normal listing • We will advise if there are any changes to the Higher Courts and Youth Court closer to the date.
ACCESSING COURTSA AND CASES How can lawyers prepare for the launch of CourtSA? Make sure your L and P Code details are up to date with the Law Society. How will lawyers access CourtSA in the criminal jurisdiction? If you are a lawyer working for a firm or organisation, do not create your own account. Your firm’s account administrator will do this for you. If your firm doesn’t have a CourtSA account, your account administrator can go to https://courtsa.courts.sa.gov.au/ and create one. If you already have a CourtSA account, you don’t need to do anything. How will lawyers get access to cases? From 28 February, 2022, you will need to request access from the Court through CourtSA. It is not possible for the Court to provide you automatic access to any cases you may already be acting on. Under the new Rules, when you request case access you must provide your P Code. This will generate a Notice of Acting identifying you as the Responsible Solicitor on the case and you will receive CourtSA notifications related to the case. If case access is granted, you (as the Responsible Solicitor) and your CourtSA Account Administrator will be given access to the case. Your CourtSA Account Administrator can then allocate it to anyone else in your organisation.
If your client has more than one case, you can request access to multiple cases at a time (as long as you are instructed on the additional cases). If your client has other cases, you are not instructed on you cannot access them. To get a list of your client’s cases email enquiry@courts.sa.gov.au. How long will it take to process case access requests? Requests are usually processed within 24 hours. However, please be mindful that in the weeks after the launch there will be an increased demand for case access so it may take longer. If you need urgent access to a case, you need to lodge your request using CourtSA, make note of the administrative case number allocated to your request, the name and number of the case you wish to access, and contact CourtSA Registry Services. Will defendants be able to access their cases? Yes, they may request access and if it is granted, they will get access to the case. They will be able to view and do anything a lawyer can do. If they instruct a lawyer, the lawyer will need to request case access. Both the defendant and lawyer will have access to the case. Will barristers be able to access their clients’ cases? Yes, barristers will need to request access to their clients’ cases from the Court using CourtSA.
LODGING How will documents be lodged? Documents won’t be signed using CourtSA. If a document requires a signature it must be printed, signed, scanned and uploaded to CourtSA. If no signature is required, the document can be saved as a PDF and uploaded. When a document is lodged, the lodging party will receive a notification to let them know it’s been received by the Registry for review. If the document is accepted, the party will receive another notification letting them know the document can be accessed on CourtSA. If
