Digital support to the justice system will be key to our future courts. And online approaches too. Covid-19 has dialled up the need for us to be thoughtful about how, what and when we make progress. This is a 'get you going' primer for anyone dealing with issues today or trying to safely implement change that makes justice more timely in delivery - but sustaining the necessary protections.

The Checklist of Critical Success Factors in the Appendix was a valuable addition.

Richard Susskind has been arguing for years that the solution to the problems of citizens' access to justice lies in online courts. In 'Online Courts and the Future of Justice', he makes out a compelling case for such courts. He also provides convincing answers to the many objections that have been raised to them by doubters. Although Susskind is a passionate advocate of online courts, his argument is throughout balanced and scholarly. His writing is crystal clear and admirably free of complex, technical detail.

I am not a lawyer, however the law affects us all, and more and more of it is happening 'digitally'.

A STIMULATING DEBATE WHICH IS FASHIONING CHANGE AS ONLINE COURTS EMERGE IN THE 2020s

An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator

Professor Richard Susskind never fails to surprise us with his excellent new assessment on the future of legal services as we enter the 2020s. There is much of a personal approach to the thorny and controversial subject of what are called “online courts” which can different things to different professionals. One thing, however, is sure- change is on the way as the current systems we use to process justice have to face technological change whether we like it or not.

“Online Court and the Future of Justice” is another, in quite a long line, of books from Richard about what the future holds for his granddaughter (amongst others). Oxford University Press (OUP) are to be congratulated in publishing these texts at a time of change when we just do not know which possible direction, we will end up going in, locally and globally, with the new technologies as they come in.

“Our court system is struggling”, says the author. “It’s too costly to deliver justice for all but the few, too slow to satisfy those who can access it. Yet the values implicit in disputes being resolved in person, and in public, are fundamental to how we have imagined the fair resolution of disputes for centuries”.

Inevitably, the question is raised - could justice be delivered online? Yes… and no. Susskind remarks that this idea “has excited and appalled in equal measure, promising to bring justice to all, threatening to strike at the heart of what we mean by justice”. And those are just some of the politer views as lawyers do not like change!

With online courts moving “from idea to reality”, the government and public alike are facing one of the most fundamental changes to our justice system seen for centuries. However, the public’s understanding of it, and debate about this “process revolution” are only just beginning with Susskind’s new book.

For this new work, Susskind, who is described as “a pioneer of rethinking law for the digital age”, confronts head-on the challenges facing our legal system and the potential for technology to bring much needed change. His brings his expertise from years of experience leading discussions (often via OUP) on “conceiving and delivering online justice” and is rightly described here as charting and developing the public debate which will be of interest to a wide legal and lay audience alike.

Against a background of austerity politics and cuts to legal aid, the public case for online courts has too often been framed as a business case by both sides of the debate. Are online courts preserving the public bottom line by finding efficiencies? Or sacrificing the interests of the many to deliver cut price justice? Susskind broadens the debate by making the moral case (whether online courts are required by principles of justice) and the jurisprudential case (whether online courts are compatible with our understanding of judicial process and constitutional rights) for delivering justice online.

The book runs to just over 300 pages with an introduction, 28 chapters and a useful checklist on “critical success factors” set out in an appendix at the back. Footnotes are also included at the end together with a bibliography and short index.

The hardback edition of this book was published on 22nd October 2019.

The author Richard Susskind has written a fascinating book on how we can harness the power of technology to increase access to justice for more people. He describes the shortcomings in our current system and tackles some of the thorny questions on the road to creating online courts — e.g., can computers serve as judges? The writing itself is accessible, sprinkled with humor throughout. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in law and tech.

I am writing from Brazil and could say that online court is the only way to move forward. Here on state of Parana (South of Brazil) 100% of all cases have began online and this fact did not endangered anyone nor any right. Quite the contrary. An online court is more transparent, publicly accessible, and more near every place on earth ( in fact an online court is at one click away from you, 5 seconds from your everyday life tasks). Our state justice here in Parana already ruled more than 12 millions cases over an online environment and has a backlog of +_ 3 millions more yearly. The telepresence technology is also the only way to go. When needed Witnesses are heard over internet and this is another game changer: on the scheduled time they stop what they were doing and in 5 seconds are live on court and soon after their hearings are back to their lives again ( it’s huge). The most elegant and well-researched legal solution is of little value unless the rights it identifies can be translated into action—as some kind of remedy or other satisfactory outcome. The online court does exactly that for humankind.

For anyone interested in Tech and Law - this is a must.

Dieses Buch spiegelt die Asante Entwicklung von LegalTech wider. Es ist eine gute Grundlage nachzudenken.

Es el producto que he recibido más rápido en 20 años de compras a Amazon. El libro es mucho más grande de lo que Richard Susskind nos tiene acostumbrados. Es de pasta dura.