His Excellency the Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa, stressed the importance of the new expertise project recently approved by the Council of Ministers by amending the Evidence Law in civil and commercial matters, in order to make it in line with the development in the areas of expertise, specialized technical advice, and international best practices. In using expertise before the judiciary, which will contribute to reducing the time of litigation before the courts and developing the quality of technical reports.
During the government media briefing, organized by the National Communication Center in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments, as part of a series of government achievements held via video communication, the minister said that the new expertise project and the judicial electronic transformation are among the essential projects that aim to raise the level of performance effectiveness and speed of completion.
Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa added that the expertise project, which will be referred to the House of Representatives, is one of the important initiatives that will fundamentally change the organization of expert work before the courts, by enabling litigants to resort to expertise to prove the case, as well as attaching the expert report when filing or during the course of the case. .
The Minister of Justice noted that the new project will allow the available expertise in the market to benefit the opponents from the qualitative and accurate experiences in resolving disputes and choosing the best specialized technical opinions, while obligating the opponents to submit expert reports within specific periods.
During the media briefing, Sheikh Khaled gave a presentation on the applications of electronic transformation in the justice sector, which provided the services of filing civil, commercial and legal cases of all degrees, serving judicial announcements, applying the case management system to prepare it for pleading before the courts, presenting lawyers’ agencies to plead before the courts, and exchanging notes between the courts. And the parties to the case, and the possibility of reviewing the minutes of the session from all parties during the sessions.
The Minister of Justice added that the applications of electronic transformation in the justice sector provide services of accessing case files, making decisions by the enforcement courts, following up on the concerned employees, issuing judicial rulings, and implementing judgments from opening the file to paying the required amounts, in addition to inquiring about the travel ban and payment of sums. Due, as well as submitting applications to the Department of Minors’ Affairs and Funds and following them up, and adopting the electronic system to provide documentation services throughout the day and anywhere.
The Minister conducted a comparison between the mechanism for providing services before and after the electronic transformation, as the comparison showed a significant reduction in the number of procedures required to complete one service, which required personal attendance, as well as the time taken to complete it, as it saved effort and time for the judge, lawyer and litigant, especially in The aspect related to procedures and case management.
On the most prominent advantages of electronic transformation applications, the Minister of Justice stated that they contributed to reducing the period of advertisements to become automatic, with the possibility of filing and following-up lawsuits throughout the day, in addition to the circulation of lawsuits without the need for paper files, as well as the possibility of not attending the sessions in person, and informing all parties of the case’s developments. Immediately, not to mention supporting the speedy settlement of cases, raising the productivity of the assistive devices in the implementation and follow-up of court decisions, as well as submitting requests to the execution courts at any time, doubling the number of decisions issued by the execution courts by a large percentage, and following up on the status of requests at the Department of Minors’ Funds according to the sequence procedural, and the completion of documentation transactions without being restricted to a place or time.
Sheikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa valued the great efforts made by the Information and eGovernment Authority in achieving the electronic transformation of many of the services provided by the Ministry through the National eGovernment Portal, explaining that the number of electronic transactions completed through the services available through the portal amounted to 1,861,102 transactions in 2020. distributed as follows; 471,187 for litigation, 1,315,680 for enforcement, 11,759 for licenses and agencies, 26,774 for minors' affairs and funds, 35,702 for private notaries.
With the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of justice procedures, the Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments referred to a number of completed initiatives that contributed to strengthening these procedures, adding that the most prominent of these initiatives represented in completing the automation of procedures before civil, commercial and Sharia courts, establishing specialized tracks for cases, especially commercial ones, and adopting a management system The case, the application of mediation in disputes, the development of performance indicators for the courts, the development of performance orders, the creation of a quorum in small claims cases, and the development of the rental dispute resolution mechanism.