E-link between Saudi courts ordered

RIYADH: Minister of Justice Walid Al-Samaani has ordered the electronic link between the criminal and family affairs and appeal courts on an experimental basis, according to a ministry statement.
The step is meant to shorten times of cases, and speed up the issuance of rulings and transactions of beneficiaries.
The new step will cut administrative procedures between general, which includes criminal and family affairs, and appeal courts from seven hand-processed measures to only two electronic stations in a manner that will make transfer of cases quicker.
Earlier, transfer of hand-carried cases between general and appeal courts took an average of 30-40 days, whereas the new electronic system will make it spontaneous.
The Ministry of Justice has embarked on implementing the electronic linkage between the family affairs and appeal courts in Riyadh in preparation for a wider e-link between general and appeal courts in other parts of the Kingdom.
The e-link project between these courts falls within the ministry’s strategy. The project is aimed at realizing the ministry’s objectives in line with the National Transformation Program (2020) and raising the efficiency of the judicial system, the ministry said.
The implementation of the e-link project between courts took nearly nine months to prepare documents, conduct technical studies, analyze the work environment, review regulatory and legal frameworks, and study internal and foreign risks.
The launching of this project comes weeks after the minister of justice launched a “paperless court” in Riyadh, and two similar courts in Madinah and Buraidah, in Qassim region.
The minister termed the paperless court a “strategic project” aimed to cancel paper-based transactions in all enforcement courts throughout the Kingdom.