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Giving Justice a Voice
With the government’s ongoing commitment to digitising and streamlining the UK’s justice system, digital transformation is starting to make a difference within policing, courts, and the prison and probation service.
UK courts could also benefit hugely from digital transformation, with decades-old technologies in place and entire systems built on paper documents and forms. The government is already working on digitising the UK’s court system, with a recent reaffirmation to “modernise the delivery of criminal justice and encourage greater use of technology” in the 2021 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. So what does that modernisation look like? At different levels of the system there are different pilots underway. For example, the new Common Platform case management system is designed to cut manual document handling and reduce the amount of paper documents produced by and for criminal courts.
It was introduced by the HM Courts and Tribunals Service in late 2020, and consolidates five legacy systems and all their data into a single platform, “improving the way criminal cases are accessed, managed and processed.” The platform offers all the tools required to prepare, share, and present case information with lawyers, court staff, and judges, giving everyone more visibility into how cases are progressing. It’s currently in use in more than 25 crown and magistrate’s courts in England and Wales, with a rapid rollout planned for the rest.
With courts facing an ever-growing case backlog, digitisation could be the solution that helps work through cases faster—without putting extra strain on personnel and processes. It’s key for futureproofing against disruption, too. Courts that had already reached digital maturity coped best with the change in demands and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From frontline policing to court proceedings to probation support, the justice system relies on timely, accurate notes, documents and forms. And using Dragon, everyone who needs to create, edit and share those documents can work with greater speed, accuracy, and freedom.
Speech-to-text could be an integral part of modernisation for the justice system. If you’re looking for ways to help your department or team work more effectively as you digitise, consider putting down the keyboards—and using your voices
Nuance Communications
Nuance Communications is a world leader in conversational AI innovations that brings intelligence to everyday work and life. Nuance delivers solutions that understand, analyse, and respond to people – amplifying human intelligence to increase productivity and security.
With decades of domain and AI expertise, Nuance works with thousands of organisations globally across legal, financial services & insurance, healthcare, education, telecommunications, public services, and retail – to create stronger relationships and better experiences for their customers and workforce.
Chair
Robin Jackson
Independent Business Management Consultant
Robin Jackson is an independent business-management consultant, focussing on the legal sector, and is Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. Between 2008 and 2020, he was the chief executive of two internationally renowned sets of barristers’ chambers, covering a very broad range of legal practice, was a member of the Executive Committee of the Legal Practice Management Association for ten years and its Co-Chair for the last three, was Vice-Chair of the Bar Council’s Bar Representation Committee, and, most recently, helped to establish and chaired the Bar Council’s COVID-19 Working Group in response to the emerging pandemic.
Speakers
Richard Atkins QC
HEAD OF CHAMBERS, ST PHILIPS CHAMBERS
Chair of the Bar of England and Wales in 2019 and Leader of the Midland Circuit from 2014 to 2017, Richard is one of the country’s most eminent criminal silks and has been part of the leadership team of the profession for a number of years. He has dealt with senior Government ministers and officials and the country’s most senior judges. He has had considerable involvement with both the Legal Services Board and the Bar Standards Board dealing with the regulation of the profession. He sits as a Crown Court Recorder (part-time Judge) and also as a fee-paid Judge of the Mental Health Tribunal and a Tribunal Chair for the Financial Reporting Council.
Simon Howard
SPEECH RECOGNITION CONSULTANT, CRESCENDO SYSTEMS
Simon Howard has an extensive history in speech recognition, having been a founder of one of the original Dragon Systems Partner companies in the UK and a former Sales Director at Nuance Communications. He is a well-known presenter and a passionate advocate of the productivity benefits that speech technology brings to the business and professional sectors of industry.
Stuart McMillan
Policy Analyst, Bar Council
Stuart is a Policy Analyst at the Bar Council and is responsible for its IT Panel, with a focus on new data regulations, legal technology, and AI. His work at the Bar Council also includes the Legal Services Committee, which works on new and ongoing efforts to improve the practising lives of barristers. He also works with HM Courts and Tribunals Service on their ongoing court reform programme. Stuart is also responsible for the Bar Council’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Panel, where he helps to promote the use of arbitration and mediation as effective methods of dispute resolution across the Bar. He also writes a column on developments in legal technology and the legal services industry. Stuart is an accredited mediator. Whilst Stuart is representing the Bar Council in this webinar, his views are not necessarily representative of the views of the organisation or its membership.
Jonathan T R Silverman
Joint Managing Director, Silverman Advisory
Jonathan founded and ran his own firm from 1981 to 2017, which he led to become a highly-regarded, mid-sized London practice. Jonathan structured the operation and made it an attractive proposition for a larger practice and successfully merged it with a national firm. An expert legal practitioner, business owner, and a recognised industry leader who is a guest lecturer at the University of the Arts and an international speaker, Jonathan is regularly asked for his comment by the BBC, Sky, national and specialist press. Respected for his pragmatic problem solving, he applies a similar approach to the guidance provided to Silverman Advisory clients. Jonathan has also held non-executive directorships for several businesses in a variety of sectors.
Vladimir Teodosiev
Sales Manager, Nuance
Vladimir Teodosiev is a Sales Manager at Nuance delivering value to high-profile private and public organisations. Commercially savvy and with a strong interest in technology, he has extensive experience in creating and delivering value to high-profile private and public organisations. Highly customer-focused and results-driven, he supports businesses in developing best practices that facilitate efficient document creation.