Annual Report of the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago 2012-2013 Annual Report 2012-2013 | Page 33

Information and Communication Technology
The Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago envisions a justice
system in which, within minutes of an arrest, a Magistrate
can have all of the necessary information needed to make
the best possible decision about a defendant’s incarceration or release on bail at the very first hearing. In this
scenario the Magistrate will at that first hearing have:
• Complete fingerprint-based, standardised national criminal history record, including juvenile records.
• Outstanding warrants.
• Probation status and conditions.
• Schedule of all pending matters.
• Drug treatment status and test results.
• Outstanding Protective Orders and history.
• Alimony and Child Support orders.
• Sexual offense registration status.
The Court will also have before it an evaluation of all
relevant information regarding community contacts, thus
enabling it to make the most appropriate bail decision and
an up-to-date listing of jail and treatment facilities available
that allows the court to determine the most appropriate
placement for the defendant in the event of a plea.
All Court documents would be filed electronically before
trial, and Attorneys and litigants would be automatically
notified of all Court dates which are set to eliminate
calendar conflicts and to schedule specialised Court reporters and interpreters when necessary. All trial participants
would have real-time access to appellate decisions, statutes,
Court rules, and jury instructions. Judges and Attorneys
would view real-time Court transcripts, and bar-coded trial
exhibits would be produced instantly.
At sentencing, the information regarding all options, and
re cidivism rates for similarly profiled defendants would be
graphically presented to the Court as it would relate to each
sentencing alternative. Pursuant to the rules of evidence,
the Court’s external website would provide a secure vehicle
for those victims and relatives unable to appear to make
written and videotaped statements. If the Judge orders a

prison sentence, the Prison Services would be electronically notified of the need for transportation, and prisoner
profiling begins automatically for rehabilitation.
For matters under the civil jurisdiction of the Courts, a
similar set of information flows that would allow the
electronic filing, listing, scheduling of time and court
resources immediately and far in advance of the actual
hearing date would be provided.
For both criminal and civil matters, defendants and
complainants respectively would be able to pay fines and
receive monetary restitution using a modern electronic
cash transactions and payments system. Court records,
though safely held, would be easily accessible to the respective Court staff and Judge or Judicial Officer who are
dealing with the particular case. While both electronic and
paper records are complementary, it is envisioned that the
electronic information system would be able to rapidly
provide the Court with the data for its performance
management system.
Judges, Judicial Officers and Court staff would have the
ability to access information on any case, and to take stock
of their own workload and allocate their work schedule
accordingly.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are
now available to make this vision a reality. Barriers,
however, such as competing justice system objectives, legal
limitations, stakeholders’ capacity, and differing visions for
the use of ICT, present challenges. The Judiciary, therefore,
is actively collaborating with key stakeholders, including
the Ministries of the Attorney General, Legal Affairs,
Justice, and National Security, the Prisons Service and the
Police Service, as well as the Law Association of Trinidad
and Tobago, to coordinate efforts for the development of a
modern justice system in which an integrated information
system will comprise the core feature that will improve
timeliness, efficiency and integrity in the administration of
justice.
To this end, the Judiciary continued with work in 2013 on

the information technology component of the Remand by
Video Conferencing Project. The purpose of this project is
to upgrade and expand the system of utilising a video-link
between the prison and the Court for remand hearings,
originally utilised at the Scarborough Magistrates’ Court, to
various Magistrates’ Courts and prison locations throughout Trinidad and Tobago. The project which is being implemented in conjunction with the Trinidad and Tobago
Prisons Service was originally scheduled to be completed
before August 2013, but encountered some constraints
during the contracting process. As such completion has
now been revised to the end of the first quarter of 2014.
The upgrade of the Judiciary’s telephone system to an
Internet Protocol-based phone infrastructure (IP) is
another critical project in which work continued during the
past year. While an IP-based system was set up in certain
locations in the Judiciary, the project now seeks to integrate
these areas with all other Judiciary locations throughout
the country. The project is expected to provide cost savings
in the Judiciary’s monthly telephone calls, as well as
improve timeliness and efficiency in communication in
the organisation. For the period under review, the new IP
telephone system was commissioned at the Family Court
and the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court (Madinah Building), and design and planning work was undertaken for the
Judiciary-wide IP phone infrastructure. Work on installing
the core IP infrastructure and handsets for other Judiciary
locations in Port of Spain was expected to be completed
before September 2013. However due to constraints during
the contracting process, completion is now scheduled for
October, 2013.
Work was also completed on:
•re-designing and upgrading the Judiciary’s core network
infrastructure for greater efficiency and improved security;
•upgrading and centralising the current system of storage
for the audio digital court recordings;
•upgrading the case management information system
databases at the Court of Appeal and Criminal Section of
the High Court.

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Reshaping the

Judiciary Identity