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Electronic lodgement helps overcome the tyranny of distance in Queensland

08 August 2005

With one quarter of the Magistrates Courts in Queensland now part of the CITEC Confirm network, legal practitioners across the state are fast realising the benefits of lodging claims and requesting default judgments electronically.

Solicitor John Gregg of Gregg Lawyers, operates a busy legal practice in Spring Hill, Brisbane and says the time savings delivered by electronic lodgement have revolutionised his practice.

Each month, Gregg Lawyers lodges an average of 130 claims, 124 minor debt claims and 30 requests for default judgment with various Magistrates Courts via CITEC Confirm. As an alternative to manually lodging these documents in person at a court, electronic lodgement provides significant time and productivity savings for John and his staff.

“We routinely deal with Magistrates Courts in remote parts of Queensland,” John said.

“Now, rather than waiting three or four weeks for hard copy documents to be returned from these courts, we receive almost instantaneous replies to our requests, and we can lodge claims in a matter of minutes.

“The use of electronic lodgement has been so beneficial to our business that we have recently adopted it in our Victorian office.

“We conduct a lot of interstate debt recovery, so electronic lodgement will enable us to do more from our office here, as well as maximise productivity in the Victorian office.

“Most importantly, being able to access real-time information about the status of documents and claims enables us to keep our clients more informed, and they really appreciate that,” he said.

Greater convenience for all

Justice Queensland’s Information Systems Controller, Tim Parker said the electronic lodgement system enables claim documents to be moved with greater convenience for all court users, including magistrates, legal practitioners and litigants.

“The system makes it possible for users to interact with the courts via the Internet through a 128bit secure, password-encrypted software system,” Tim said.

“This system ensures a secure and speedy exchange of information between the person lodging the claim and the Magistrates Court.

“Electronic lodgements can be downloaded from CITEC Confirm to the Magistrates Court each weekday between 7am and 11pm.

“Successfully lodged documents can be accessed and printed from the CITEC Confirm website. These copies are the equivalent of the documents provided when they are filed at the court counter, and can be served on a defendant.”