The legal maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” has long been a rallying cry to encourage judges and courts to operate more efficiently. If legal redress or fair relief are potentially available to an injured party but aren’t promptly provided or supported, that is effectively no remedy at all. Today, the need for accessible and fair judicial systems is at least as relevant as when William Penn voiced it back in the seventeenth century. Fortunately, technology is playing a key role in helping to realize the vision and improve access to justice.
Worldwide, courts are contending with growing pressures that threaten to bog down judicial processes and erode trust in the judiciary. Antiquated case management systems, critical data stuck in silos, and public demand for digital means of participating in justice contribute to the urgency to find new solutions that are cost-effective and adequately cyber-secure.
Innovative courts are already busy modernizing systems and taking early steps with generative AI technologies. At Microsoft for government, we help courts and judicial organizations maintain trust within their communities through solutions that transform operations and help to increase fairness, accountability, and transparency. Let’s have a look at some important benefits of court modernization, including a new way for courts to experiment with AI innovation in a safe and productive fashion.
Better access to justice in 3 key areas
The adoption of cloud technologies typically has an almost immediate impact in terms of power, scalability, and flexibility. Modernizing tools and systems can further deliver new capabilities that help improve access to justice. Among these:
1. Streamline court operations
Courts function better with a more empowered workforce, and modernization makes it possible to quickly realize significant gains in efficiency. For example, by simply adopting Microsoft 365 copilot, 70% of users surveyed across industries reported being more productive and able to focus more on high-value activities and creative work.1
Even greater benefits are gained by cloud solutions that bring together vast stores of data. Courts are often supported by aging legacy systems that hold data in disconnected silos, making it difficult, if not impossible, to integrate it all. For example, the Orange County Superior Court (OCSC) managed three disparate case management systems (containing more than 70 million paper files), which created serious inefficiencies. So, they integrated it all into a single data warehouse on Microsoft Azureand realized new benefits in decision making and improved operational efficiency, as well as setting the stage for greater innovation.
Case management systems are especially being transformed by modernization. Courts are moving away from expensive, limited legacy systems to modern solutions that speed up case processing, help judges access necessary information faster, and even increase the capacity of caseloads. Cloud-based case management systems can also fundamentally change how people interact with courts. For example, the Alabama Appellate Courts System developed a hybrid cloud solution that allowed 6,000 Alabama licensed lawyers to access information and file motions with no need to physically travel to any of its three courts.
2. Improve everyday access to justice
Trust in the court is central to justice, but for many people, the cost and friction involved in legal proceedings is high and the results are not always satisfactory. Modernization can help ease the burden with new services and capabilities that are user friendly and engage the public.
Remote access to court proceedings is a profound benefit of modernization, making it faster, easier, and less expensive for people to participate. Widely adopted during the pandemic, remote hearings with Microsoft Teams are now being enhanced with generative AI features that can do things like generate unofficial transcripts or session recaps.
The Teams experience can also be expanded to provide additional services. For example, the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1) in Brazil improved access to the court with a new Virtual Support Desk—an integrated online service platform within Teams that offers easy access to important judicial services for people across Brazil. It also provides a personalized work hub for court service agents, giving them access to real-time engagement analytics, proactive notifications, and service governance indicators.
Modernization is also helping people to better navigate the legal system. Easy to use digital tools can provide guidance in legal processes, assist with document preparation, and help find important resources. Virtual assistants and chatbots can help people understand legal terms, access case information, and represent themselves in litigation in areas such as family law. Translation and transcription capabilities can also be included to make these services even more accessible.
3. Enhanced experiences through new services
Innovation with generative AI and advanced cloud services is still evolving for courts, but the early benefits give us a glimpse of how significantly courts will be transformed in the months and years to come.
Many of the benefits listed above will accelerate dramatically as more courts invest in modernization. For individuals, AI-enabled online portals and mobile applications will provide easier access to case information, explain options, and answer questions about legal processes—providing support that even court staff cannot always offer due to legal restrictions.
For judges and court staff, modernization promises faster processing of cases, with solutions that speed up administrative tasks, reduce delays caused by paperwork errors, and improve the filing of legal documents. AI can automate the extraction, categorization, and organization of information from documents such as invoices, contracts, and emails.
Generative AI is increasingly also being integrated into legal workflows to automate tasks like tagging and classification. This promises to advance a key industry initiative called SALI (Standards Advancement for the Legal Industryin which Microsoft is a participant), that is creating a standardized way to define and document legal matters. By automating tagging and classification of documents (commonly done by hand), AI can help SALI achieve its mission to benefit legal professionals and their clients by fostering innovation and efficiency in legal workflows.
A low risk way to explore AI innovation in the court
Many courts are understandably cautious about involving their critical data and systems in innovation with new technology such as AI. That’s why Microsoft endorses an important new initiative called the AI Sandboxby the National Center for State Courts (NCSC).
The AI Sandbox helps leaders in judicial organizations explore generative AI and learn how it can improve productivity, efficiency, and citizen service. Designed to serve the needs of courts across geographies, the AI Sandbox lets judges and court staff experiment with generative AI in a secure private cloud environment built on Azure. It supports the development of use cases such as drafting court orders, creating job descriptions, providing legal information, and much more. Best of all, it’s easy to use via the NSCS portal (no travel required).
To get started, visit the NCSC AI sandbox website.
Advancing your modernization journey
Whether it’s the AI Sandbox or early experimentation with Microsoft 365 Copilot, the path to modernization is unique for every court. There are some fundamental elements that every organization will eventually need in order to realize the complete benefits of AI:
A cloud platform like Azure delivers proven scalability, security, and compliance.
A data and AI platform like Microsoft Fabric provides a common way to reason over your data.
A development platform like Azure AI Foundry lets you build world-class AI-native applications.
Improving access to justice through technology is a long-term journey, but one that delivers benefits early and often. It’s important to define your goals, take a strategic approach, and choose a technology partner who will be with you every step of the way.
Learn more
To see how Microsoft is empowering court systems to be more agile, secure, and accessible for all, watch our video. To learn more about how we can help in your court’s modernization journey, visit our website or get in touch with your Microsoft sales representative or technology partner.
1Microsoft Work Trend Index Special Report.
David Williams
Director, Global Public Safety and Justice
As a leader in Microsoft’s worldwide government team, David Williams is passionate about the application of technology to empower the people and organizations dedicated to Public Safety and Justice. He works closely with partners, field teams, and customers to find solutions that meet each organization’s unique requirements. A retired United States Army major, he has worked for more than 10 years in technology roles focused on intelligence, investigations, and data analytics.
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