Netmaster Pioneers Paperless System For Criminal Justice System In England & Wales

Netmaster Solutions has delivered CaseLines, the market leading paperless digital case management system, to the Ministry of Justice for its Crown Court Digital Case System which is now live in all Crown Courts in England & Wales. Defence and prosecution lawyers, Judges and HMCTS staff are already benefiting from working improvements and seeing massive financial savings and improvements to the criminal justice system.

Netmaster Solutions’ CaseLines cloud-based service is a secure, bundle management and courtroom presentation system that has been adapted for the Ministry of Justice to digitise the criminal justice system in England and Wales. CaseLines is the market leading product for the preparation of trial bundles and electronic presentation in the court room. The system reduces the time and effort required to prepare trial bundles, eliminates the direct and indirect costs of paper and allows courtroom presentation of the bundles without the added cost of a courtroom operator. CaseLines also eliminates the need to pay for third party preparation of digital bundle files. CaseLines provides a secure and easy-to-use cloud based service to collaboratively produce, present and review high quality professional trial bundles.

The Crown Court rollout builds on Netmaster Solutions’ successful track record of delivering CaseLines for the UK Supreme Court, for civil trials in the High Court and to councils across the UK for use in the Family Courts and Employment Tribunals.

One of the most important and radical changes to take place in the judicial system for several centuries, it is estimated that CaseLines will save the Ministry of Justice millions of pounds in time and resources running an overburdened manual system. The innovation goes hand in hand with a very successful programme by the Ministry of Justice to provide defence lawyers with access to WiFi throughout the Crown Courts system. Both innovations contribute to a major programme of digital change in the Ministry of Justice which will improve all judicial services in England & Wales by 2020. The Government is investing GBP738m in the overall programme.

David Jackson, Managing Director, Netmaster Solutions comments: “We are delighted that the Crown Court Digital Case System has been so readily accepted by all the user communities – Judges, prosecution lawyers, defence lawyers and HMCTS staff. This is a tremendous example of a successful government IT project and the Ministry of Justice deserves to be praised. The Crown Court Digital Case System is expected to save over three hundred million sheets of paper every year. Already, with over 25,000 evidence bundles in place, the paper saved is the equivalent of 4 stacks each as high as the Shard.”

To learn more about CaseLines please contact:

David Jackson
Netmaster Solutions Ltd
Portland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5RS
Contact M: 07827 999669 E: david.jackson@netmastersolutions.co.uk

Note to Editors:
1. London based Netmaster Solutions Ltd is a cloud services provider to the global legal services market. The company is a prime example of the UK’s continuing leadership in the digital economy. Customers include the Ministry of Justice, metropolitan and city councils, county councils and fire services, as well as a number of international law firms. Its success demonstrates the benefits of the Government’s G-Cloud procurement frameworks and its support for SME’s in the digital economy.

2. For recent collateral, the following links will be useful:

Yorkshire Post interviews Judge Collier

Law In Action, BBC Radio 4 (15 minutes in)


3. Unique benefits of the CaseLines system include:
• Judge focused – designed and built with input and support from senior judges in the UK and New Zealand
• Efficiency gains for all parties through early collaboration and shared documentation – all parties can engage at an early stage, even before the bundle is finalized, and work with the bundle all the way through to the court room
• Time saved – CaseLines enables all parties to work on the case from any secure location, avoiding delays and reducing travel costs
• Reduced costs of copying and paper management
• Court room presentation tools that require no courtroom operator
• Scaleable to handle hundreds of thousands of cases – from 100 page initial applications to 150,000 page (and larger) trial bundles
• Designed to support use by an entire justice system, with tools to allow court staff and users to manage many cases and user groups simultaneously
• Mandatable for use by different user groups - minimal training requirements and no local IT support requirements makes it possible to mandate use of the system
• Service support and eLearning tools for all users