(BERNAMA; February 6, 2007)

KUCHING, Feb 5 (Bernama) -- From now, lawyers in Sarawak need not fly frequently within the state as the country's first ever Video and Teleconferencing courts has begun operation.

Under the newly introduced facilities, lawyers would not be required to travel to attend outstation cases for court hearing in Kuching and Miri.

For example, the lawyer would only be required to attend at the video and teleconferencing room in Miri High Court to appear before the judge of Kuching High Court in Kuching for a Kuching case.

Chief Justice of the Federal Court, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Datuk Sheikh Abdul Halim when met by reporters, here Monday said that the new facilities would be extended to Bintulu and Sibu soon and it may be extended to other states if it proved to successful.

"With the Video and Teleconferencing courts, a lot of travelling time for the lawyers and also expenses for their clients can be saved," he said after the launch of the Video and Tele conferencing, short messaging system (SMS) and File Tracking Systems (FTS) at Kompleks Mahkamah Kuching.

With the new facilities, Ahmad Fairuz assured of a speedy disposal of court cases and at the same time, ensuring the backlog of cases only to one year.

Asked on the specific timeframe when the new facilities would be made available throughout the country, he said the matter would be discussed in detail soon.

"I will have further discussion with Chief Judge of the High Court in Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Richard Malanjum and Sarawak Information System Sdn Bhd (SAINS) to see how soon we can implement this system in other states.

"I'm sure members of the bar council in Peninsular Malaysia will follow soon as it will increase the rate of disposal of court cases," he said.

On the SMS technology, Ahmad Fairuz said the system would be used to notify and remind advocates with regards to the status of their cases.

For example, SMS notifications alert informs an advocate of a last minute court hearing rescheduling thus enabling him to manage his time accordingly and more efficiently, while for FTS, the court would be able to keep track of the whereabouts of each individual file, he said.

With FTS, the problem of misplaced files should be a thing of the past, he said.

The development and implementation of the Video and Teleconferencing, SMS and FTS is a joint collaboration between the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak, the Sarawak State Government and SAINS, the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) arm of the Sarawak state government.
-- BERNAMA.