Automating Israeli Court Administration: A Case Study

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The Israeli Court Administration (ICA) oversees the operation of all courts in Israel, handling as many as 500,000 live cases at any given time. Each workday, 3,000 new cases are filed and 100,000 legal documents are received. The ICA relied heavily on inefficient, paper-based processes for case management, with files physically passed from desk to desk, leading to unnecessary delays and lack of visibility into the status of cases. Lawyers and police had no means of tracking their cases, and up to 30% of open cases had not been acted on for more than a year due to lack of automated recordkeeping. The ICA sought to modernize, automate and simplify their massive workload, expedite important cases, and grant limited access to external users such as judges, police officers and court employees to verify case status and submit necessary documents.

The Israeli Court Administration operates as an independent unit within the Ministry of Justice. It oversees the operation of all courts in Israel, including the Supreme Court, district courts, magistrate courts, traffic courts, family courts, juvenile courts and employment courts. In addition to its many court systems, it also oversees the Bailiff Office and Center for Collection of unpaid fees and expenses. The ICA is responsible for handling as many as 500,000 live cases at any given time, with around 3,000 new cases opened every working day.

The ICA worked with Focus Integration Systems to design and build a sophisticated case management solution using Nintex K2 Five. This solution comprises around 150 workflows and creates a seamless electronic process that covers the entire lifecycle of each legal case filed, from submission to judgment. The system is used by 3,700 judges and court employees, with 2,600 using the system concurrently every day. All documentation and case history is accessible from their inboxes, enabling the courts to process cases more efficiently and accurately. The use of K2 Software has standardized the way each type of case is processed, with each user having an inbox and automatically presented with a list of their tasks. The business application guides employees to complete tasks in the right sequence. The new case management process eliminates the need for courts to handle and file paper-based reports, forms, and correspondence. Police and legal firms can access the system remotely to check the status of cases and submit documents.

• The new case management system has significantly improved the efficiency and accuracy of the Israeli Courts. Clerks no longer have to search for files from cabinets and locate documents pertaining to cases. All the documentation and case history they need is right in front of them, on their computers, delivered on the same screen, accessible from their inboxes. The courts can now see how many cases are open, monitor the workload for each team and identify which cases are at which stage in the process. It is now impossible for cases to be overlooked, as every open case has at least one task assigned to a specific person. The system has also eliminated the need for physical storage space and filing cabinets, reducing office size and expense. External users such as police and legal firms can access the system remotely, improving transparency and collaboration.

• 800,000 new cases per year now systematized
• 8,500 registered external users include judges, attorneys, and police officers
• 150 clean, modern workflows save thousands of hours