eLawyer is organising the first and ever Legal Blog Writing Contest running from now till 30th Nov 2008. Below is the details of the competition:

The recent Political Tsunami in our country has yielded many changes for us, the Rakyat. We have seen the emergence of a dual-party system (well, almost), where a bigger and tougher opposition shares the limelight with the ruling party. We have seen giant-killers and the almighty falls of ministers. We have seen the weakening of racial politics and the strengthening of democracy.

For the legal community, the change came in the form of Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, the new de facto law minister. Hailed as “the most promising appointment” in the new cabinet by The Economist (Reference - “Shuffling deckchairs“, The Economist, 2008-03-19.), he has so far lived up to the name. From forcing the government to apologize for the 1988 judicial crisis (a huge leap, that one), the introduction of the Common Bar Examination, to his staunch support for establishment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Video Clip –  Datuk Zaid is here to stay.

Thus, eLawyer, as your local legal community portal, would like to hear your views and concerns regarding some of the issues currently affecting the legal community and the country, as a whole.

We would like to invite all lawyers, law student and bloggers to participate in our blog writing competition, which features some ‘hot’ topics right now:

1) Towards an independent judiciary in Malaysia

2) Common Bar Exams: The creation of a new problem or a solution for an old one?

3) Welcome CheDet.com: the impact of Tun Mahathir’s blog

4) Anti-party Hopping Law- Agree or Disagree?

Choose EITHER ONE of the above topics, give your two-cents worth in not more than 1,000 words and you stand to win up to RM 500 cash! Successful entries will be featured in an exclusive section on our website.

Prizes

Grand prize   RM 500
1st Runner-up   RM 200
2nd Runner-up   RM 100
10 Consolation prizes  eLawyer merchandise

Panel Judges

1. Dr Azmi Sharom – an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya. Apart from teaching, he is also a column writer for The Star newspaper. He is well known for his brave and critical view on various issues regarding the democracy and constitutional law in Malaysia. 

2. Lee Shih – a practising lawyer and a member of the KL Bar Committee. He chairs the Publications Committee and serves as Deputy Chair of the IT Committee. He tries to blog regularly, despite his hectic schedule.     

3. Fahri Azzat – a lawyer practises in Azzat & Izzat. He served as a committee member in the IT Committee under KL Bar Committee. Fahri is a blogger and is also the founder of an online email forum – “The Rostrum”, which is meant for legal professionals to discuss issues concerning the legal industry. 

Terms & Conditions

1. This competition is only open to eLawyer members. For non-members who wish to participate, sign up as a Basic Member for FREE at www.elawyer.com.my.

2. Entries should be submitted via email to contest@elawyer.com.my by 12 p.m. on or before 30 November 2008. Late entries will be automatically disqualified.

3. Format for essay entry:
a. E-mail ‘Subject line’ : eLawyer Legal Blog Writing Contest 2008
b. Document body : First write your contact details (Full name, address, e-mail address, phone number and occupation), followed up by essay topic & essay
c. Essay should not exceed 1000 words

4. Winners will be contacted via email / telephone and their names will be published at www.eLawyer.com.my.

5. The organiser reserves the right to display/publish/use any submitted entries in any way it deems fit.

6. Judges decision is final. No enquiries/appeal will be entertained pertaining to their decision.

7. Any other questions regarding this contest, you may contact us at 03-2782 5399 or email tocontest@elawyer.com.my.

This event is supported by:

Law Society, University Malaya

UK Malaysian Law Student Union

Law Student’s Union, International Islamic University Malaysia

Law & Commerce Soceity, Management & Science Univeristy

Law Society, National University Malaysia (UKM)

This is in fact the 1st of its kind competition in the history of Malaysia. We urge all of our members to take part in it and if you still not yet a member, please register as Basic Member (it is FREE) and email us your essay today!

We always believe that computers in courts should be virus proof. Well, why shouldn’t it — a lot of people’s lives depend on documents saved in the court’s computers. Judge’s decisions, notes of evidence etc, all these affects people’s life. And when a computer goes down, so may be the life of a few people. A few month’s ago we heard about how a case was postponed because the judge could not locate his notes of evidence. Today another interesting thing happened, the decision of the judge is attacked by a virus and — voila it is lost. The whole thing need to be retyped and thus delaying the decision and in the whole process delaying the whole judicial system and adding one more case to the almost 1milion backlog cases.

And that is exactly why we’ve been pushing for Macs in courts as it is virtually virus free. And that’s why we make sure that our softwares runs best on a Mac. BriefCase for instance runs best on a Mac and at the moment BriefCase is the best real-time notes of evidence software in Malaysia and has been proven to speed up trials up to 300%.

To read the full news, click here and here.

Computer virus delays Irene Fernandez appeal

By M. MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: The appeal of Tenaganita Sdn Bhd director Irene Fernandez, convicted for maliciously publishing false news in 1995, was delayed once again because of a computer virus.

The notes of evidence on one of the computers being used for the proceedings had been corrupted by a virus, which meant they had to be retyped, said High Court judge Justice Mohamed Apandi Ali.

He said the lower court registry (criminal division) had been working very hard to type the notes for the appeal, but he received a letter dated Aug 4 from registrar Norhayati Abd Jabar on one of the typists in charge of compiling the notes.

“Three typists had been assigned to type the notes of evidence. Unfortunately, one of the computers used by a typist was corrupted with virus when she was half way through her work, and she had to type them again,” he said.

Justice Mohamed said that the registry was short of typists. “I have already requested the registry to double its efforts and even encouraged them to work overtime to complete their task,” he said.

Saying that the registrar had requested a month to finish the job, he set Sept 10 for mention to ensure that all records of appeal are ready.

In 2003, Fernandez was sentenced to 12 months’ jail by a magistrate’s court for maliciously publishing false news in a 1995 memorandum entitled Abuse, Torture, and Dehumanised Treatment of Migrant Workers at Detention Camps.

Our CTO working hard to finish up BriefCase 2.0 

We have been awfully quiet for the past few months. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Pilot Project

We were involved in a pilot project for the transcription of notes of evidence in the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex. There were four other companies in the pilot and each with their own system. We were introducing BriefCase for the first time and we were present at 3 courts.

We were happy with the results of the pilot. Judges were very happy with BriefCase and they have have strongly recomended that BriefCase be used in our courts. The chart below illustrate the judges’ opinion of BriefCase.

BriefCase Speed

The whole idea of the pilot project was to find a system that would help improve the speed of trials. Well how much faster is BriefCase compared to the present system? Well, the figures we got were mind-boggling. We found out that BriefCase is about 300% faster than the present system. And not only is it much much faster, it is also significantly more reliable and accurate.

BriefCase’s speed comparison chart

Judges Feedback

We received great feedback from judges. Below are a few quotes from judges. Due to privacy reasons, we cannot reveal the names of the judges.

Good performance. Notes of evidence are excellent and reliable. Faster disposal of hearing.
-High Court Judge-

We would definitely stick with this system (BriefCase) for our other trials, (and) not other systems
- High Court Judge -

It shortens the court proceedings and enables me to concentrate on the evidence given by the witness.
- Session Court Judge -

A reliable system. Strongly recommended for court use.
- Magistrate -

One senior lawyer said that BriefCase is the fastest system he has ever used.

Mass Interview & Training

Legal Bytes organized a mass interview for transcribers and training.We interviewed about 200 people in two a week and short listed a few candidates for the position of transcribers. The interview was handled by our Head Transcriber Ramlah. We would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Aida for the list of candidates.

Ramlah conducting the mass interview.

A few months ago we embarked on a project to develop a website for the KL legal aid. However not even half way the Legal aid team were caught up with helping the Bersih and Hindraf people with legal problems. So we at Legal Bytes put up a temporary website while waiting for the legal aid team to supply us with more content.

Anyway now it seems that there are some breathing space for legal aid. So we have agreed to get the website done. Be on the look out for a whole new legal aid website in the next few weeks.

Legal Bytes’ Chief Technology, Jourdein has a not so new blog. Here he blogs about technology, programming and his life. Visit the blog here.

This is a cool add on for Firefox. You can now write a blog without logging into your blog’s admin page.

Judge concerned over missing court notes
By M. MAGESWARIBy M. MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: A High Court judge has advised an officer-in-charge of court records to lodge a police report on the missing notes of evidence of three material prosecution witnesses and a document for the case of Tenaganita Sdn Bhd director Irene Fernandez.

Justice Mohamed Apandi Ali said he was concerned after finding out from the officer that the notes and the exhibit could not be traced.“There is a high possibility that the loss of the notes of proceedings and the exhibit could have occurred in Jalan Raja (old court building).“The question of the (documents) to have been dropped out during the relocation (from the old court building to Jalan Duta court complex last year) did not arise,” he told the packed courtroom.

Yesterday was fixed for direction of the appeal after the same court was informed on April 1 that over 1,700 documents pertaining to the case were not compiled in the record of appeal.

He said the three prosecution witnesses were district engineer for Semenyih detention camp Tan On Chin, Dr N. Raman, who was then Tanjung Rambutan director and chief psychiatrist and the camp’s male nurse N. Vejayan.Justice Mohamed Apandi said he was in the predicament to hear an appeal by Fernandez following the missing notes and exhibit as several questions may arise due to this.

Fernandez had been sentenced to 12 months’ jail by a magistrate’s court for maliciously publishing false news in 1995.

Magistrate Juliana Mohamad had on Oct 16, 2003, said that the prosecution, through its witnesses, had successfully established Fernandez as the publisher of the news.Fernandez was convicted of maliciously publishing a memorandum entitled “Abuse, Torture, and Dehumanised Treatment of Migrant Workers at Detention Camps,’’ which contained 16 statements that were found to be false.

She was said to have committed the offence at Tenaganita’s office in Lorong Bunus Enam, off Jalan Masjid India, on Aug 25, 1995.Therefore, Justice Mohamed Apandi said he wanted to hear submissions from both parties on the issue of the lost of part of the notes of the proceedings where the record of appeal could not be completed.“I want to hear submissions on the incomplete record of appeal, what are the next legal effects, course of action for judiciary and discretionary power given to me for justice to be done in such circumstances,” he said.The judge said it would be interesting to know what will be the legal implications due to the loss of court documents and set June 11 to hear submissions from both parties.

Judge concerned over missing court notes

It is high time that the courts move on to a digital system and adopt BriefCase. We provide multiple back ups of the same files and also off-site back ups so that in the event the court got into a fire or a ‘flood’ the documents are always safe.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Judging the recording system
Story and pictures by SHAILA KOSHY The plan for an e-court system has had more starts and stops than a learner driver. If the current judicial leadership can at least get all courts to use a recording and transcription service, it will be a proud feather in their judicial songkoks.THERE were loud gasps last week when Malaysians read from Parliament reports that the backlog of cases was almost one million.In a written reply to Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng in Parliament on Thursday, de facto Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim revealed a grim picture: the backlog in the High Court was 91,702 cases, with 125,944 in the Sessions Court and 777,703 in the magistrate’s courts.But it is confidence building to learn that the judiciary has been putting in place new measures to address this and other problems in the administration of justice.

In January last year, the Government had handed the management of the e-court system – covering case management, court recording and transcription (CRT) and an information technology infrastructure – to former Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim. But very little has been heard since then of the e-court pilot.

This January, new Chief Justice Datuk Seri Abdul Hamid Mohamed tasked new Court of Appeal President Justice Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi and new Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Datuk Alauddin Mohd Sheriff with the job of shaping up the administration of the courts in the peninsular.

Their primary target is to reduce complaints about missing court files, poor counter service, long waits for trial/appeal dates, long trials and even longer waits for grounds of judgment.

Justice Abdul Hamid approved a pilot project for a recording and real-time transcription service in two courtrooms in the Jalan Duta Court Complex and directed Justice Zaki to report on the viability of the new and existing systems.

When the second largest court complex in the world opened on May 3, 2007, it was equipped with two court recording and transcription (CRT) systems – an analogue recording system in 65 courtrooms and a digital recording system in nine courts. Unfortunately, they were not widely used, say High Court Justices Datuk T.S. Nathan and Datuk Ramly Ali.

However, with the CJ’s interest in utilising CRT to speed up commercial and civil hearings coupled with Justice Zaki’s drive, things are moving again.

According to Justices Nathan and Ramly, the digital recording systems work the best.

“There is a consensus that we abandon the analogue system because it is too unwieldy and problematic,” says Justice Nathan.

Not one to mince his words, Justice Zaki apparently told the recent Conference of Judges that the “analogue system should be thrown out the window”.

Bar Council secretary Lim Chee Wee suggests it be sold as scrap so the taxpayers’ money is not wasted.

As for the digital system, one provides delayed transcription, the second offers almost real-time transcription, says Justice Ramly.

The ideal in real-time transcription is for the judge and counsel to see the words on their (individual) screen as they are typed. Also, in high profile public interest cases, recordings of the day’s proceedings can be burnt onto CDs and given to judge and counsel, along with a transcript, so they can check for errors and corrections can be made the very next day.

Judges who use the digital CRT system are optimistic it can reduce the length of trials and long waits for trial dates.

“We have about 700 cases per court. I have already given out dates for Dec 14 and 15, 2009,” says Justice Ramly.

Most of the time, judges are taking work home because they don’t have time to write their judgments during office hours, he adds.

Even so, judgments are often done in dribs and drabs and with Malaysians becoming more litigious, the few judicial resources are being stretched even more.

Efficient use of current resources (clerical and IT) would certainly be more cost saving than spending money on more judges, says a senior appellate level judge who did not want to be named.

“One day I was hearing winding-up applications and because I used the CRT court, it was all over between 30 and 45 minutes,” says Justice Nathan, a Commercial Division judge, adding it would have taken three hours if he had had to record by hand.

“In my experience, using the CRT system has reduced the trials in my court by half the time,” says Justice Ramly, who hears commercial and intellectual property matters.

Apart from assisting the judge, the digital CRT system can also help counsel in preparing for the next day’s hearing or final submissions if the recording of the proceedings is burnt onto a CD and given to counsel at the end of the day or trial.

But the common problem in all three CRT systems, say the judges, is the transcribers’ lack of competency in English and knowledge of legal terms.

“Even with the real-time transcription system, it is only 60% to 70% real time because they cannot keep up,” says Justice Ramly.

Currently, judges’ secretaries and court support staff come from a Public Services Department pool. Would it be better if they were a “closed service” so there is no possibility of them being transferred after time and money has been spent for their specialised training?

Both judges agree but are concerned that a “closed service” might deprive the staff of promotions and career development opportunities.

In Lord President Tun Mohamed Suffian Hashim’s time, court stenographers were sent to the Philippines for training. This stopped once they made Bahasa Malaysia the court language and English was less in use.

But apart from typing skills and competency in both Bahasa Malaysia and English, Justices Ramly and Nathan think that paralegal qualification would help, noting that those in Singapore and Australia have some legal training.

A satisfied user of a CRT service in one trial, Lim says: “I would have liked to have the notes at the end of the day and I am prepared to pay a premium to get it the same night.“Even without CRT, clients are already paying; I pay the judge’s secretary RM10 for a typed page of his handwritten notes.

”The advantages to the CRT system are restricted to civil cases for now because the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) states that the notes of proceedings must be in the judge’s handwriting. Nothing can be done unless Parliament amends the CPC.

The painful experience of Justice Mohd Zaki Md Yasin, who is trying the Altantunya Shaariibuu murder case, should be the push Zaid needs to do this.On Oct 24 last year, the trial in the Shah Alam High Court was adjourned earlier than usual. The reason: the judge had cramps in both hands. The ambidextrous judge had joked wanly: “It’d be good to have a third hand.”

Judging the recording system

There are actually a few errors in this story. At present there are two systems in court, one digital recording and the other is real time notes by Legal Bytes using BriefCase. The preferred system at the moment is the real time notes. The English problems is more prevalent in the digital recording system as the transcribers are the judge’s secretary who, in most cases, is not conversant in English and also no familiar with the legal terms. And the notes will only be ready within 2-3 weeks. The digital recording system only provides a computer in the court room and records the proceeding in digital audio.

BriefCase on the other hand, the system mentioned by Lim Chee Wee and Justices Datuk Ramly and Datuk Nathan, provides real time notes and digital audio recording for back up. The draft notes will be available immediately after the trial and after 48 hours, the fair notes will be out after cross checking with the audio recording. The transcribers for the pilot project are provided by Legal Bytes and are not government staffs.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

We have been very quiet for a very long time for a very good reason. That’s a lot of very. Well we at Legal Bytes now are doing a pilot project of BriefCase at the KL Courts. We are at High Court Reserve 5 & 6 and at Session Civil 10. All courts are empty courts and at the moment are made to be trial courts. Only trials are conducted in these courts.

We’ve been here for a month already. Wish us luck!

We’re also working on some even more revolutionary products to revolutionize our legal system.