Sabah and Sarawak courts ready for futuristic system

TAWAU: The Sabah and Sarawak courts are gearing up for the future with the implementation of their case management system (CMS) that would among others pave the way for a more consistent sentencing for similar offences.

Chief Judge for Sabah and Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum said the CMS could assist judges in meting out sentences as a data-sentencing feature would be incorporated into it.

“This will further enhance public confidence in our justice system,” he said at the opening of the Sabah and Sarawak legal year by Chief Justice Tun Ariffin Zakaria here yesterday.

He said with the full implementation of the CMS, lawyers coming to court only needed to carry a notebook with the maximum use of the virtual files feature that was already part of the system.

“Heavy bundles of pleadings and documents will be history. And fair and signed orders will be issued immediately after hearings,” he said.

There is also a plan to link the CMS to the Prisons Department to avoid the movement of remand prisoners to and from court.

“This will save time and money apart from ensuring security,” he said, adding that the CMS would also help the media by “auto generating” daily reports of cases suitable for publication from March.

On a different issue, Malanjum said the number of criminal cases pending in Sabah courts as of January was 11,653 while civil cases totalled 3,370.

In the Sarawak courts, the number was 3,003 and 3,736, respectively.

Malanjum said the Registrar of the Sabah and Sarawak court would meet this week to find ways to clear the backlog so that only cases registered in 2012 and 2013 would remain on the list of pending cases.

He said the courts in Sabah and Sarawak would also play their part in environmental conservation efforts in line with this legal year’s theme of “green court”.

Sabah Court Registrar, he said, recently met representatives of environmental bodies to find ways of creating more awareness about environmental laws and the consequences of any breach.

A public seminar on the same issue would also be held soon.

Earlier, Ariffin and Malanjum led a procession of some 100 High Court and Sessions Court judges, magistrates, lawyers and court officers from Sabah and Sarawak through downtown Tawau to the High Court building to mark the launching of the legal year.