Court of Cremona
Developed by
Products used
Find more items that match:
Browse by Product:
Bringing more efficiencies to legal processes
The Italian legal system has traditionally managed case documents using paper-based processes that can drain resources, slow court proceedings, and impede collaboration across legal teams. As a result, legal staff—including magistrates, lawyers, court clerks, and administrators—often find themselves working in challenging conditions. To improve processes, the Court of Cremona wanted to adopt an information system that could help ensure “conditions of parity” between all parties involved in proceedings. This requirement is stipulated in Article 111 of the Italian Constitution.
To accomplish this goal, the court set out to implement a cost-effective, easy-to-use system that would dramatically reduce the amount of paper used during proceedings. Ideally, the solution could be deployed and maintained by government staff.
Since 2003, the Court of Cremona has conducted technology tests in conjunction with CISIA (Inter-district Coordination of Automated Information Systems) and the DGSIA (General Management of Automated Information Systems) using Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files to share digital documents among parties working on preliminary hearings. The approach is integrated into a system called DIGIT, which the court is proposing as an Enterprise Content Management system.
Benefits
- Saved more than €356,000 since automating the management of case documents
- Eliminated the need to copy, route, and manage millions of pages of case proceedings annually
- Improved information sharing and availability across legal teams and court staff
- Addressed government requirements stipulating reliable, secure access to case documents for all parties involved in hearings
Project Details
From paper to digital documents
The DIGIT system captures, manages, submits, and archives all types of case documents and information. It conforms to the organizational routines and procedures of offices and staff, creating departmental solutions that can be extended to other offices and across the organization.
The system is flexible and can be easily adapted to address changes in the legislative framework, procedures, and staffing requirements without significant redevelopment costs. The added value comes from the fact that there are no external design costs, making it easy for internal staff to program and manage the system.
DIGIT leverages Adobe LiveCycle solutions, including Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server and Adobe LiveCycle Workflow server, to manage the large volume of paper documents handled daily by the courts. As soon as document sets arrive at the offices of the Investigating Magistrate and the Judge for the Preliminary Hearing, they are forwarded to the DIGIT office for scanning and conversion to Adobe PDF. The newly created electronic document sets look exactly like the paper-copy originals and follow the same page sequences, as prescribed by law.
During the creation of the digital document sets, bookmarks are inserted into the Adobe PDF files to enable readers to navigate more easily within the digital documents. Finalized materials are submitted for optical character recognition and then placed in an appropriate directory on the court’s internal network. The document set can be read reliably by authorized court staff using free Adobe Reader¨ software, versions 6 or later.
Streamlined, authorized access to case documents
Court clerks and others working on cases can quickly bring up and review case documents on their PCs. At the same time, judges, public ministers, and lawyers wanting copies of digital files have the opportunity to keep abreast of proceedings at anytime and from anyplace using their PCs. They can perform searches on document sets, extract parts of documents to insert into case analyses, and share information readily across project teams. The result is greatly increased compliance with Article 111 in the Constitution.
An important part of the DIGIT system is the use of Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server to generate documents with built-in security to provide the court with greater control over documents. Adobe LiveCycle Workflow Server will also be implemented to automate the transfer and processing of documents across all parties working on a case. At the end of a preliminary hearing, the final documentation set is saved to the digital system and made available for subsequent uses, including appeals, archiving, and sentencing.
Achieving real ROI
Already, a substantial number of document sets have been digitalized. More than 400 digital document sets including 200,000 pages of proceedings are currently available to judges, public prosecutors, court clerks, and defense lawyers in the Court of Cremona. In addition, more than 2,000 sentences are available in digital format, some of which include original documents having digital signatures for jurisprudential research, chancery notes, and copies.
The return on investment has been high, with 100% of all copies now assigned in digital format to defense lawyers. The court has also seen less depreciation on software and hardware, and increased productivity across its workforce. Since it was implemented three years ago, the DIGIT system has achieved net savings of €356,000 and eliminated the need to use more than 6 million sheets of paper. Furthermore, it reduces reliance on toner and other polluting chemical products. Thus, there are no problems or waste disposal costs.
Building a foundation for future benefits
Staying true to its commitment to streamline hearing processes, the Court of Cremona is currently converting to platform- and application-independent Adobe PDF files an additional 1.8 million pages of penal proceedings—which represent 100% of the preliminary hearing documentation for the Brescia District Court of Appeals. Equally important, all penal sentences are transmitted from the district court to the Attorney General for easy viewing on PCs, and digital document sets are readily available to the Court of Appeal to streamline its processes.
Do you have a story you would like to share? Join the Adobe Customer Reference Program.
