Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31LocalGovernmentLawyer Dispute Resolution 2016 17 method. “There is no standard out there and that’s something the Government needs to look at. We already have different forms of secure email, for example.” Some encryption tools are quite easy to use – it is when you have to share the bundles with other parties outside of the court, that it gets difficult, according to Corsie. “People then either have to try to download ‘Egress’ or they have to wait months to get access – or they don’t bother. There’s still a load of work to be done in that direction. At the same time, the Information Commissioner’s Office is levying bigger fines if data gets leaked and people just think that it is safer to use paper bundles.” Another concern is that technological infrastructure will be put in place in the courts but not used to any great extent. One delegate reported on their experience of one court area where they worked and where there had been a push towards paperless prosecutions. “Money was found for all these screens sitting on courtroom desks but 6-12 months later they were just gathering dust, because people still found paper more useful and better sometimes. So it could save time and resources not having to print out bundles but there were so many problems [with the electronic systems] that we didn’t really use them.” When it comes to legal departments’ use of technology, said Joyce Golder, not enough information is shared on what does and does not work. “As managers, the biggest criticism we get is that we make decisions on case management systems that we are least likely to use, as we time record the least, we have fewer cases.” Golder added: “You have all these different systems, which some people love and some people hate, it’s difficult to work out which one is best for your needs, especially when you’re very busy with the day-to-day. But I know that technology does work – we have access at the courts and we can reach our case management systems at the court with our lightweight laptops. It’s still clunky but I know it’s the way forward, especially as we are increasingly getting our staff to work remotely, with agile working, hot-desking and the like.” Adaptability is key Whether it is exploiting technology more successfully in this way, improving relations with internal clients, changing the council’s approach to settlement, or restructuring the legal service, it is clear from the roundtable discussions that there are steps legal departments can take to meet the challenges ahead. Dispute resolution lawyers will, though, need to show great flexibility and initiative in the years to come. Philip Hoult is Editor of Local Government Lawyer. “It’s difficult to work out which system is best for your needs It’s still clunky but I know that technology is the way forward, especially as we are increasingly getting our staff to work remotely, with agile working, hot-desking and the like.”