Key factors for the success of e-Justice projects

Our previous blog post raised important questions such as what are the risk factors behind eJustice projects? Naturally, the next question that comes is: “Which are the key success factors for eJustice”? How do we employ the risk factors into strategy that will deliver a successful e-Justice transformation?

The success factors

If you google “What are the success factors for a resilient national e-Justice project?”, you will hardly find an answer. It’s simply so because that’s not the right way to seek the answer to this question. Observing e-Justice systems is hard. Mainly because there’s very sensitive information in this sector. Therefore it’s more likely to find answers about other e-government projects rather than e-Justice. That’s why it’s a good idea to use success factors for e-government projects as a baseline for building an e-Justice project.

For this purpose we listed DeLone and McLean’s information systems success model in evaluation of e-government initiatives:

1. The quality of the information system and the measurements of the system itself: Usability, availability, reliability, adaptability and response time.
2. The quality of the information and the measurements of the output of the information system; Personalized, complete, relevant, understandable and secure.
3. The quality of the service and the measurements of this quality;
4. The support delivered by the service provider, either internal or external to the justice administration.
5. The use of information, the exploitation of the user of the information output by the information system; The navigation, the information retrieval and the execution of a transaction.
6. The satisfaction of the user, the response of the recipient to the use of the output of the information system; the user experience and motivation.
7. Net benefit, combines the balance of the positive and negative impact on individuals and the organization, effect of the information on the behavior of the recipient and on organizational performance. All the above measurements depend from each other and cannot be understood independently.

Then on DeLone and McLean’s e-government success factors baseline, the domain-specific e-Justice success factors can be put. In each country, these factors vary. If you’re a Justice IT leader that is responsible for the design and deployment of the e-Justice project, you should touch on these points with the supplier that’s going to develop and provide the e-Justice system deployment. Gampiero Lupo’s research article is a good literature that pinpoints the success factors behind e-Justice systems. These success factors include:

• Independence: courts and justice systems must be able to function independently from external influence.
• Liability: the e-Justice system must influence positively the judicial accountability.
• Impartiality: the digital justice must keep judges free from prejudices and preconceptions that might influence their decision-making process.
• Equal access: the access to digital justice might be equal for all, with no discrimination of people with disabilities, people who don’t have enough understanding of the e-Justice technology, etc.
• Protection of personal data: refers to the protection of personal information stored or stored in a digital justice system.
• Legal validity: refers to the respect of the norms by the actors of the system (citizens, lawyers and judges), the capacity for improvement and the numerical procedure.

The domain based factors in e-justice are the most important ones to its success and validity, and cannot be analyzed and evaluated without the baseline e-government measurements.

Conclusion

E-justice refers to the use of ICT in justice aimed at improving its access and strengthening the justice system. The success of e-justice efforts depends, to a great extent, from the satisfaction of the direct stakeholders of these services, in general judges, prosecutors, legal authorities, administrative staff and citizens. Various frameworks in the literature that address e-Government success primarily relate success to information systems success and behavioral aspects. Based on research literature and Casedoc’s own experience in implementing successfull e-Justice systems, we highlighted some important factors for the success of digital transformation in the justice sector.

The neglecting of these factors may result in failure and may even impose negative effect on the justice system. By being aware of the risk factors and with orientation towards the success factors, the design and deployment of e-Justice systems is more likely to end up with positive outcome. Casedoc’s mission is to help governments and their IT leaders to make this transformation successfully. Contact us for more information.