Thread by @iMleesh

Thread: I attended the Selangor Bar Civil Law Conference on Friday 14 February. The CJSS spoke on the Judiciary’s move to a paperless environment for the appellate Courts.

The Federal Court and Court of Appeal Judges will soon be operating from their iPad devices. 1/8

Records of Appeals and written submissions will all be uploaded on to the Judges' devices. References to documents will be projected up on to their screens.

The CJSS also shared that this will also change the way lawyers present their written and oral arguments. 2/8

It would make sense for lawyers to also get used to reading and operating from their iPad or tablet device. Written submissions should contain clickable links or easy references to schedules already contained within the written submissions. 3/8

The CJSS gave the example of how a counsel may want to refer the appellate panel to a smoking gun document or a key passage in the notes of proceedings to show why the trial Judge was wrong. The old way would be to have the hard copy submissions have a document reference, 4/8

the panel would have to get the assistance of the interpreter to pull out the relevant bundle or now PDF bundle, look for the correct page, and then ensure all the panel members were at the right page. By then, the impact is lost. 5/8

In the new age, your written submissions, now all in the electronic form and with a clickable link, can just refer to that key document, and the panel clicks the link. The document immediately pops up and you get the immediate impact. 6/8

I am also thinking: imagine when the counsel incorporates coloured images, embed video clips, clickable flowcharts and moving money flow diagrams. If a picture paints a thousand words, this multimedia format of e-submissions would point a million more effective words. 7/8

But that means we as lawyers have to embrace this new digital age, whether we like it or not. We have to change how we practice and how we present our legal arguments. 8/8