SAUDI ARABIA

Justice Ministry restructures file system in general courts

October 23, 2017

Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Ministry of Justice has begun restructuring judicial services in the Kingdom›s general courts, starting with Riyadh where the waiting time for random access to judges has been reduced by up to 90 percent.

The time consumed in searching files was cut from two hours to a minute in some of the circuits, Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

This was attributed to reorganizing and limiting the filing system to electronic means, officials said.

“We started restructuring the General Court in Riyadh and the completion rate is about 72 percent. In all, 48 employees in various departments have been trained to carry out the task,”said Wissam Abdul Hai, who in charge of the restructuring of judicial departments. “During the last three months, 121,000 files were cleared, in addition to reorganizing 13,000 files within various judicial departments.”

He pointed out that the next phase will include the restructuring of personal status courts and then the district courts, which are renamed human rights circuits.

“Court employees used to waste days in search of documents and files related to cases due to the haphazard filing systems, where bundles of documents were stacked up and scattered, but now we can spot the files within minutes. The average wait was cut down from 30 minutes to 7 minutes. In addition, the waiting time for people who need access to a judge to inquire about a particular matter has shrunk to 10 percent,” added Abdul Hai.

He pointed out that the ministry was seeking to establish a file center and a central reception area because the files that were causing disruptions within various court departments would be shifted completely to an independent center.

The courts will adopt the filing system followed by hospitals where patient files requested for review are returned to the file center the same day.

All the court files will be digitally stored and any document added to any particular case will be saved electronically.

Abdul Hai has said the ministry seeks to unify the administrative process in all courts. The judicial departments represent the constituent cell of the courts and thus the tasks assigned to the staff will be reorganized, separating the functions of each employee.

He said all departments in the General Court in Riyadh were automated. “The next step will be to digitalize case files. Each case file, which carries a specific number, will be classified accordingly for easy access,”he added.


October 23, 2017
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