Prime
Embrace tech to manage legal processes well, junior lawyers told
Judiciary ICT manager David Kikabi, NITA's Julian Rweju, ICT cluster at ULS Rachael Kugonza Kasirye and Roke Telecom managing director James Byarugaba attend the Legal Tech Expo at Motiv, Kampala on June 26, 2024. PHOTO/GLORIA IRANKUNDA
What you need to know:
- Experts say the legal sector's legitimate concerns about data breaches, cyber-attacks, and the need to protect client confidentiality have contributed to personal and institutional hesitancy to adopt digital technologies.
Junior lawyers have been urged to embrace digital technology to manage legal processes efficiently.
Speaking at the third edition of the Legal Tech Expo in Kampala on July, 26, Uganda Law Society (ULS) president Bernard Oundo, represented by the honorary secretary of ULS Isaac Atukunda, expressed need to bridge the gap between the owners of the digital tools and members in the legal fraternity.
“We are cognizant of the different barriers of digital transformation within the legal sector, ranging from insufficient infrastructure, tech skills gap, and the cost of the digitisation, however, we are committed to supporting our members,” Owundo noted.
He added: “In this regard ULS signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Innovation Village to equip as many members as possible with technology skills, which will ease their ability to embark on their digitalisation journey with confidence as well as increase and configure the digital systems of the government such as Electronic Court Case Management Information (ECCMIS).
Atukunda encouraged all members of the legal fraternity to take advantage of the development to learn about the different legal products and tools on market.
Rachel Odoi Musoke, the Senior Technical Advisor to the Governance and Security Programme noted that use of paper documents and face-to-face human interactions has proved to be a hindrance to the adoption of new digital technology with some lawyers and law firms resistant to change.
“Faced with the reality of dealing with highly sensitive and private information, the legal sector's legitimate concerns about data breaches, cyber-attacks, and the need to protect client confidentiality have contributed to personal and institutional hesitancy to adopt digital technologies,” she observed.
National Information Development Authority (NITA) business transformation manager Julian Rweju noted that the National Backbone Infrastructure (a project aimed at providing connectivity to government agencies) will be linked to the ecosystem of the legal fraternity.
“With that, in the seven districts, we have connected about 140 sites and the fibre is about 4,200 kilometers connecting institutions like the high court, prisons, DPP which means systems like video conferencing in the prisons are now possible because of that connectivity,” Rweju remarked.
According to the 2024 International Journal for Court Administration, an estimated 5.1 billion people (about two thirds of the world’s population) across the globe lack meaningful access to justice, especially the poor marginalised and vulnerable communities across the globe.
