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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-12-04 Daily Xml
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CourtSA

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (14:35): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General update the house on the progress of the electronic court management system launched by the Chief Justice last Monday?

The SPEAKER: The Deputy Premier.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:35): Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee can leave for half an hour under 137A, thank you.

The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: I thank the member for Newland. Some say there are only two certainties in life—death and taxes—and I—

An honourable member: And the member for Lee being evicted.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: And the member for Lee being evicted—yes, that's very good. I am very pleased to update the house that on 26 November there was a very significant day in the history of the South Australian courts. The Chief Justice, together with other leadership members of the Courts Administration Authority, formally launched the new electronic court management system, known as CourtSA, in the probate jurisdiction.

Prior to this, I sought assurance from the Chief Justice that it wouldn't fall to the same fate as the recreational fishing licence initiative a few years before when the whole system crashed. I am pleased to report that as of 26 November all matters related to probate are now dealt with electronically through the CourtSA system. It had its launch smoothly and efficiently. Simply, this means that court users are now able to securely initiate, access and inquire about their probate matters online 24 hours a day as well as making payments online without attending court.

The Supreme Court of South Australia has exclusive jurisdiction in this state to make orders in relation to the validity of wills of deceased persons and the appointment of an executor or administrator of the deceased estate and the administration of deceased estates. The Probate Registry deals with applications for grants of probate and administration and other related matters. Importantly, the Probate Registry keeps a register of all grants issued by the court.

For the community, processing probate matters is a stressful and often upsetting time, with delays further adding to the distress of losing a loved one. Being able to speed up this process is integral and ensures that crucial parts of our court system are working efficiently for all South Australians waiting for an estate to be finalised. As some members might recall, the Chief Justice advised at estimates this year that at that stage there was a 600-odd backlog in probate applications with a six-week wait. So it is important in saying that in today's times modern technology is essential to efficient, effective and timely delivery of justice.

Our courts have not seen such a dramatic change in their system since the CrimCase and Civil Case management systems in the 1990s. This was obviously prior to the internet being widely used in both our community and by the legal system for lodging of documents. The need to replace these ageing programs would be obvious and, of course, is critical. The probate jurisdiction is the first in the South Australian courts to transition to CourtSA. The online system will be rolled out in the civil jurisdiction in late 2019 and in the criminal jurisdiction in late 2020. The state government has committed over $23 million towards this digital transformation initiative.

The latest statistics from the Probate Registry show that as at today, just over a week since the launch of the new program, 304 lodgements for a grant of probate were made. Of the 304 applications, 168 wills had been received, with these able to be actioned by the court. From the 168 actionable files, 112 have been finalised. This number shows a finalisation rate of 66 per cent within the first week of the rollout, a huge success by any means. These figures show that the new system was well used and its introduction has been a success.

Probate is already a highly functioning area of the court system. It has been excellent to see the rollout of this important system begin in the area before an extension elsewhere. I am confident that the introduction of CourtSA will modernise the courts, starting with probate, and will make it easy and accessible for all South Australians to conduct business with the courts. I look forward to advising members of the rollout in the future. I wish to place on the record my appreciation to those in the community, but particularly those in the legal profession who for some six weeks were not able to access the facility of court probate applications while this was being implemented. I appreciate their patience and indicate the appreciation of the government to them and their clients.

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