.svg)
Current state of digitalization of the justice sector in Spain
Despite the giant steps taken, the digitalization of justice in our country continues to have a lot of room for improvement. The starting point was so late that the advances made in the area of digitizing processes and automating tasks are still not enough to achieve excellence.
One of the biggest problems was the lack of information exchange and the existence of silos. The streamlining of many of these processes, which were still anchored to paper, has marked a turning point in the provision of the justice service. There was a certain degree of digitization, meaning that most of the documents were in PDF format, but there was no automation or digitization of the entire file.
In this scenario, the Ministry of Justice has prepared the Justice Plan 2030, that is, a common 10-year work plan, developed in co-governance with the Autonomous Communities. The objective is to influence those points that have the greatest impact on the system or that have been left out of date and are not very operational. Its benefits have already begun to be seen.
Objectives it pursues
· Transformation of the Public Justice Service. The digitalization of Justice necessarily involves the creation of an information architecture based on data in which digital legal security is guaranteed in procedures. In addition to providing electronic access to judicial procedures and files, this transformation must involve the definition of new processes that speed up and optimize operation, relying for this purpose on technologies that allow the incorporation of digital signatures, electronic judgments and the exchange of information in the Administration of Justice.
· Increased efficiency. Closely linked to the previous point, Spain has a Bill on the Digital Efficiency of the Public Justice Service. With it, it seeks to lay the foundations for intelligent justice, more oriented to data, so that by combining different sources of information, it is possible to carry out proactive management. Thus, it will be possible to anticipate fluctuations in demand and will support judges and magistrates in resolving proceedings.
· Better access for citizens. Given the high rate of internet penetration in Spain and despite the fact that it is still necessary to advance digital literacy among some groups, the digitalization of Justice expands its universality. Securely implementing judicial procedures at the click of a button is to strengthen the provision of the service. In addition, among the initiatives promoted by the Government is the installation of biometric kiosks, designed as free access points where citizens can carry out procedures at the Judicial Headquarters.
Outstanding initiatives
The most important initiatives being promoted by the Ministry of Justice not only seek higher quality in the provision of all services associated with this area, but also to improve family reconciliation for professionals or reduce existing gaps in terms of age, gender, disability, etc. Some of the most outstanding are:
· Electronic Judicial Headquarters: It is the web portal for electronic communication between citizens, entities without legal personality and legal entities with the Administration of Justice. The objective is to make it a service folder that minimizes the time spent integrating the Electronic Judicial Record (EJE), while the citizen can submit information electronically.
· Access to the EJE by professionals: In addition to reducing the digital divide that exists between different organizations, this digitalization makes it possible to analyze the stages of the life cycle of a file. In this way, it is possible to improve procedures and standardize documentation. In addition, the more than 93,000 accesses to the AXIS registered in 2022 resulted in savings of more than 713 tons of CO2 by drastically reducing travel.
· New version of LexNet: It is the platform for the secure exchange of information for judicial bodies and legal operators. It is essential in everyday life because it guarantees the presentation of written documents, the transfer of copies and the practice of notifications. With more than 260,000 user mailboxes, it manages an average volume of 420,000 daily notifications.
· Horus visor: Thanks to it, it is possible to quickly locate and consult the information on the AXES. Since it can be accessed from the Electronic Judicial Office, one of the advantages of this viewer is that, by separating administrative files from procedural documentation and itineraries, a much clearer picture of the judicial procedure is obtained.
· Artificial Intelligence (AI): Since the judiciary handles a lot of unstructured information, the incorporation of natural language text is important. Although they are still under development, some of the initiatives in which AI will be decisive are the document classifier, the document anonymization or the extraction of nominal entities, among others.
How Adea can help
Adea has the innovation and technological culture necessary to address a digital transformation as complex as that of the Public Justice Service. To the technical complexities of digitization, there must be added the necessary minimization of ethical risks associated with new technologies; Adea has a large team of professionals with extensive experience on both fronts.
The projects that the company has behind it support it to help implement intelligent automation in Justice, as well as to textualize judicial recordings, anonymize procedural documents and, ultimately, make information flow in a more agile and secure way throughout the life cycle of Justice.
