Questions/Answers

This initiative aims to ease the Supreme cases registration process for Lawyers. As a unique and unprecedented service in the Middle East, lawyers can file a whole Supreme case without any human intervention from the judicial institution's staff (Ras Al Khaimah Courts Staff) through advanced electronic procedures of e-cases registration, were they can sign in to Ras Al Khaimah official government portal through national smart and digital identity (UAE-PASS), retrieve the base case data automatically, attach all documents related to the case, sign the application form electronically and pay the fees calculated using case-based AI mechanism electronically in order to register the case automatically and receive official E-Announcement notification to attend the first hearing session through virtual video conference solution.This solution aimed to provide 24 by seven days’ access to justice, fast case filing and reduce case life cycle, reduce time and effort for lawyers and Courts and thus partner relation enhancement and cost reduction, reduce the need for paper and enhance registration process and finally increased Courts' eservice transformation to reach remote litigation and customer happiness strategic objectives.

1- Doorstep delivery of judicial and public government service. 2- 24/7 availability for judicial and public government service. 3- Dispensed paper-based procedures and provided contactless operations. 4- Simplified the procedures for lawyers and clients. 5- Saved time, effort and cost.

SDGs: Goal 5: Gender Equality. Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure. Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities. Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals. The initiative was an important and effective part of the department's digital transformation strategic plan, as the creative ideas in the initiative helped to govern and simplify an important and essential judicial procedure and also to transfer it into an digital public service that lawyers can remotely benefit from it anytime and in anywhere it was also a main factor in achieving UAE and Ras Al Khaimah emirate vision to have “Paper-less Courts” and "Remote litigation", it helped in achieving predefined long-term goals and values in many areas such as business continuity and economic. The initiative was a good chance to create opportunities for RAK Courts clients to clarify and priorities the expectations efficiently and cost-effectively, etc.

1- Reduced the cost for both institution and clients. 2- Reduced the carbon footprint around the department. 3- Eliminate paperwork and thus environment preservation. 4- Saving humans health by providing contactless operations. 5- Ease of access to justice.

The initiative helped in governing critical procedures in the highest court within the judiciary hierarchy in Ras Al Khaimah Courts by: 1- Verifying the identity of the applicants and make sure they are authorized to open Supreme cases by sitting solid rules and validations like what is the type of the applicants? Are they lawyers? Are they a party in the base cases? Are the base cases judged or still in-progress? 2- Enhancing data quality by retrieving the personal and the important base cases information from secure sources and reducing manual data entry as much as possible. 3- Using AI in determining the fees of the Supreme cases based on selections and case information entered by applicants and enabling electronic payment through different channels. 4- Redesigning the case filing process to be fully electronic and reduce the need to attend to Courts physically. 5- Enabling full access to justice for 24 hours seven days.

Gender equality is considered very important in United Arab Emirates constitution and even though there are no major inequality issues to focus on it, Ras Al Khaimah Courts developed and provided this initiative taking into consideration the importance of reaching all community segments equally by allowing any authorized lawyer regardless of gender to open a supreme case and go through the same procedures in order to register it remotely.

Targeted audience and group: Lawyers. This initiative helped in reducing the number of lawyers attending to Ras Al Khaimah Courts offices and it also helped in reducing the long waiting queues, as the mentioned target group can remotely register their cases without any hardcopies documents, filling forms or paying extra fees. The initiative in overall allows them to follow-up on the Supreme cases status and allows them to make detailed inquiry about their registered cases without visiting the department headquarter in order to reduce the cost, efforts and time for them. This initiative helped litigants to access all case documents from the primary case till the date of the inquiry, this have helped in reducing the number of document copies requests at the department headquarter.

1- Set new customer experience vision and strategy. 2- Direct observation, personal interviews and real time feedback. 3- Designed a solution to fulfill the needs after "Internal Auditing" to check the quality of the procedures. 4- End-to-End testing for quality assurance. 5- UAT, pilot Go-Live and minor enhancements. 5- Users and clients training and public announcements in social media. 6- holds meetings with related partners to check their notes, observations and issues in order to address them in next releases.

1- Identity fraud: Clients should visit the institution at least once to sign use agreement and to create personal authenticated accounts (implementing UAE-secured authentication login process). 2- Inaccurate data: Additional validation rules were implemented within the online procedures, like retrieving the personal and the basic cases information from secure sources. 3- Low level of technological knowledge for some clients: Intense training sessions, user manuals and support calls, WhatsApp and site visit support as well.

Cassation Civil Cases filing (registration) without any human intervention from institution's staff.

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1- Online webservices to retrieve cases information, parties information, documents and other data related to the case. 2- E-pad for employees and judges for signing any document. 3- E-Calculator for Supreme fees.

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As judicial procedures are almost the same in many countries and regions, the initiative can be transferred and implemented in other similar institutions.

Software development which has been performed internally in a partnership with the government application development entity (Electronic Government Authority - EGA).The initiative cost would be mainly derived from the efforts of (Project Manager, Business officials, PBR official, Business Analyst, Developers, Quality Officers, technical supports and trainers).

This initiative aims to layout a new electronic processes for cassation case filing in order to reduce time, effort, transportation for the lawyer, court Officials review, case filing, case archiving effort and thus reduce costs on both lawyers and Courts. The adoption rate of this initiative has reached a surprising rate of 91% during the first year (2019) of implementation and continued to improve where the adoption rate has reached 96% during the year 2020 until Oct. Both cost reduction and adoption rate and success of this initiative signified that this initiative will be sustainable and subject usage and improvement for further use in the future.

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Internally : Internal auditing team. Externally: Judging committee from Sheik Saqer Program for Excellence (SSPGE)

For internal auditing the team followed the internal auditing methodology by major KPIs were percentage of registered online cases and age of registration. For external auditing, the initiative was evaluated by an external team through a personal interview with the court team and reviewing the system. The initiative won second place out of 10 nominated initiatives.

The most important notes were the lack of a marketing.

This initiative has provided an alternative electronic process for lawyers submitting and filing a case in cassation court and thus it has replaced the horizontal process of cassation registration office and the case will be available for Court judges through a vertical electronic path which was integrated fully with the Court Case management system.

The implementation team used below techniques to engage all stakeholders and evaluate the initiative: - Chief of supreme Cassation Court. - Cassation Court Judges. - RAK Courts Top Management. - RAK and EGA Digital development committee. - RAK Courts development office. - Cassation Court registration and case management team. - Lawyers. - EGA Management. - Project team. - Support team Tools used: - Project Management. - Communication. - Direct interview. - Business process reengineering. - Business analysis and workflows - Collaborating with lawyers in designing and implementing the initiative. - Periodic discussion sessions. - Events. - Real time feedback. - Workshops with all stakeholders. - Online surveys.

Lessons Learned: 1- Success of innovative initiatives is possible with coordination and cooperation between all stakeholders for initiative aiming of enhancing service quality, increased access and visibility, reduced efforts and mutual benefits for all stakeholder. 2- Utilize technology and use law flexibility to overcome complications and enhance customers and partner satisfaction. 3- Proper communication is with all stakeholder is a key success factor. 4- Laws can be in favor of utilizing technology if interpreted properly. 5- Always think strategic and peruse your objectives. 6- Customers and partners will adopt and value your initiative if planned and take their requirements into consideration. Improvement Plans: Lawyers feedback regarding electronic services is measured periodically and it has been noted the satisfaction of lawyers from this initiative. - Enhancement in user interface. - Digital signature is being studied to be implemented for lawyer signature.