I read this somewhere online, but everything there is totally false. Probably money voted for the project
has gone down some peoples pocket. Everything in the court remains Manual.

source: http://www.isrcl.org/Papers/2005/Ayo.pdf


HIGH COURT OF LAGOS STATE
COURT AUTOMATED INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM (CAIS)
THE 19TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE MODERNIZATION OF
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, JUNE 26- 30, 2005
PRESENTATION BY THE HON. JUSTICE ABISOYE ESTHER AYO (MRS.)-Chairman of
JUDICIAL PROCESS IMPROVEMENT & AUTOMATION COMMITTEE OF THE LAGOS
STATE JUDICIARY, NIGERIA
The new improved, streamlined and computerized Case flow in the civil
litigation process of the High Court of Lagos State, under the Civil
Process Improvement & Automation Project is deployed as the Court
Automated Information Management System (CAIS) which runs on
the local and wide area networks connecting all the four High Court
divisions of Ikeja, Lagos, Ikorodu and Badagry, in Lagos State.
The entire civil litigation case flow from filing to final disposition has been
streamlined, improved upon and automated.
The Court Automated Information Management System (in a broad
sense) includes three sub-systems that accommodate three different key
target audiences as follows:
• Court Automated Information System (CAIS) a secure, passwordprotected,
closed information network for authorized Court
personnel (intranet).
• Electronic Access Gateway for Lawyers (EAGL) a secure, passwordprotected
information network that provides limited access to
certain sections of the case-related information for registered legal
practitioners and other external users (extranet).
• Public Information Portal, Lagos State Judiciary Web site that
provides open, non-restricted access to certain information made
public by the Judiciary.
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CAIS Intranet includes the following key features: Contact directory,
Case Management System, Court fee calculation system, Performance
reporting system, secure document management system, Legal research
gateway, internal messaging system (for all intranet users), Internet mail
(for Judges and senior Officials) and System administration module.
EAGL Extranet includes the following components: Case search,
schedule of hearings (‘Cause List’), Case archive, messaging and alerts,
Court forms and templates, Court fee calculator, Request for service,
Electronic Claim/Process submission tool, Legal research module and
personal file manager. The extranet is either accessible from the
Judiciary public web site or via www.extranet.lagosjudiciary.gov.ng.
Lagos State Judiciary public Web Site www.lagosjudiciary.gov.ng is
powered by a content management system and provides information
about the Court, directory of Judges and Legal practitioners, legal news
and announcements, High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules
and other key legislation, Court calendar and hearings schedule ‘Cause
List’, Annual reports, guides for Litigants, and tools for collecting public
feedback.
USERS
The Court Automated Information System on the local and wide area
networks is accessible to the following Officers and personnel of the High
Court of Lagos State:
i. His Lordship the Chief Judge
ii. The Administrative Judges (Ikeja & Lagos)
iii. All Honourable Judges (Lagos, Ikeja, Ikorodu & Badagry)
iv. The Asst. Chief Registrar (Litigation)- Lagos
v. The Asst. Chief Registrar (Litigation)- Ikeja
vi. The Asst. Chief Registrar (Cash)- Lagos
vii. The Asst. Chief Registrar (Cash)- Ikeja
viii. The Asst. Chief Registrar (Appeals)- Ikeja
ix. The Asst. Chief Registrar (Appeals)- Lagos
x. The Deputy Sheriff- Ikeja
xi. The Deputy Sheriff- Lagos
xii. Cashiers- Lagos
xiii. Cashiers- Ikeja
xiv. Process Clerks- Cash Office Lagos
xv. Process Clerks- Cash Office Ikeja
xvi. Records Clerk, ACR Litigation’s office Lagos
xvii. Records Clerk, ACR Litigation’s office Ikeja
xviii. Records Clerks, Strong Room Lagos
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xix. Records Clerks, Strong Room Ikeja
xx. Records Officer, Records Section Lagos
xxi. Records Officer, Records Section Ikeja
xxii. Archives Officer- Lagos
xxiii. Archives Officer- Ikeja
xxiv. Appeals Officer- Lagos
xxv. Appeals Officer- Ikeja
xxvi. Appeals Typist- Ikeja
xxvii. Appeals Typist- Lagos
xxviii. Chief Bailiff, Service- Lagos
xxix. Chief Bailiff, Service- Ikeja
Bleep. Service Bailiffs- Lagos
xxxi. Service Bailiffs- Ikeja
xxxii. Execution Bailiffs- Lagos
xxxiii.Execution Bailiffs- Ikeja
xxxiv. All Court Registrars (Ikeja, Lagos, Ikorodu & Badagry)
xxxv. Court Secretaries & Computer Operators
xxxvi. ADR Officer
xxxvii.Case Administrator- Ikeja
xxxviii.Case Administrator- Lagos
The civil litigation process starts with the Claimant or Lawyer who
brings an Originating and frontloading processes to Court for filing.
His/Her first contact is with the Asst. Chief Registrar (ACR)-Litigation,
who reviews the processes for compliance with the front loading
requirements of the new 2004 Civil Procedure rules and validates them
for processing. The ACR may also reject the claim for non compliance
with the rules. Upon receipt and validation of the processes, the ACR
Litigation inputs into the CAIS, at her workplace (using her computer
which runs on the network), key and vital data on the claim, such as the
parties’ names and addresses, claim text, subject matter, Case type,
Originating Process type, Originating counsel name, address and phone
number, Suit number category, Claim fee & Invoice number (generated
by the system filing fee calculator), date & time claim was admitted for
processing, other processes filed with the claim etc. These vital Case data
and payment invoice are electronically submitted by the ACR Litigation,
to the Cashier as a Task to accept payment of the filing fee regarding
that claim, from the Litigant or counsel; with a deadline due date for the
cashier to complete the task .The task comes to the cashier’s workplace
with the already keyed in data on the claim, for further processing by the
cashier.
The ACR Litigation gives the original processes back to the Litigant or
Lawyer who takes it to the cashier for payment of the filing fee. The cashier
would have already received the electronic claim and payment invoice with
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the task from the ACR-Litigation, for her to accept payment from the
litigant or Lawyer. Cashier opens the task and deals with it by opening
the electronic claim and invoice sent to her and then accepts the filing
fee amount on the invoice, from the Litigant/Lawyer. After issuing the
receipt, the cashier enters the receipt number and payment date
(payment date translates to filing date), in the areas provided for same on
the electronic Claim form at her workplace and also states the payment
method i.e. cash or cheque on the invoice form. Cashier updates the
Claim and invoice and the system upon receiving the submitted
information (receipt number and date filed), automatically generates a
Suit number for the Claim at the cashier’s workplace, based on the Suit
number category and hard coded convention in the CAIS. Examples of
such system generated Suit numbers are, HD/LD/23/2004 or
WD/LD/28/2001 or HD/ID/345/2003 or WD/ID/324/2000 or
M/LD/345/2001 or M/ID/245/2000 or REV/ID/678/1999 or
REV/LD/890/2005 or ID/423/2000 or LD/124/1998 etc. This
eliminates incidents of having duplicated Suit numbers for Cases, which
is presently happening with the manual process of creating Suit
numbers. The auto generation convention also ensures that each Suit
number is identified with the judicial division in which the Case was
filed.
The Cashier returns the updated Claim which now has a Suit number to
the ACR-Litigation, as a task, for further processing; that is, for the ACRLitigation
to sign the Witness Statement attestation as commissioner for
Oaths. ACR-Litigation receives and opens the task, completes the
attestation on the original Witness Statement or affidavit brought back
by the Litigant/Counsel and she also updates the electronic Claim with
the information that the Witness Statement(s)/Affidavit(s) have been
sworn. ACR-Litigation then submits the electronic Claim as a task, to the
Process Clerk-Cash Office to open a Case file for the claim, also with a
deadline due date. She also sends the original processes to the Process
Clerk.
The Process Clerk sees the task at her workplace and opens it and also
views the electronic Claim in respect of which she is to open the Case
file. Process Clerk receives the original processes from the ACR-Litigation
and the original Writ is sealed and copy of same is also certified and
Process Clerk updates the electronic Claim with this additional
information and generates a Record of Fees form from the CAIS. Process
Clerk scans all the original processes into the CAIS and opens the Case
file, filing the processes into the file. She makes both electronic and
manual entries of the filed processes on the Case inventory front jacket
of the Case file and dispatches the Case file to the Records Clerk in the
Strong Room who shelves same until the file is ready to be assigned to a
Court. Process Clerk also sends service copies of the filed processes to
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the Chief Bailiff for service. Chief Bailiff assigns the service to a Service
Bailiff. These three transactions are also done by tasks sent to the
Records Clerk-Strong Room, Chief Bailiff and Service Bailiff.
Subsequent activities that follow from the time when the Case is being
prepared for assignment by the Admin Judge, which process goes
through the Records Clerk in the Strong Room, to the Records Clerk-
Litigation, to Records Clerk- Records Section and to the
Administrative Judge, are all also captured by the system by way of
tasks through the Task Manager interface and electronic Incoming and
Outgoing Registers. One can therefore see the Task History of any
particular Case, to find out at whose workplace a filed process resides,
whether the process is still at a particular identified workplace in
Litigation area or in the Court room.
Regarding assignment of Cases by the Admin Judge, the system does a
random assignment of Cases to Judges, depending on Case type and
the Case load before the Judges and which specialized division the Judge
belongs to. The system also allows the Admin Judge to override a random
assignment, if she is not satisfied with the random selection of Judges
made by the system. All these assignment of Cases are now to be carried
out on the CAIS. The subsequent dispatch of the assigned Cases back to
the Records Section Clerk, who then dispatches them to the Court
Registrar, are also captured by the system through the Task Manager.
The dates of all these activities are also recorded by the system.
By the time the Case reaches the Court, all the key and vital data of the
Case have already been captured into the system (including the scanned
version of the filed processes) and the Judge can view in advance, full
information on Cases assigned to him/her and he/she can begin to
prepare for the Case, before the physical Case file gets to the Court. Once
the Cases are in the Court, it is the responsibility of the Court Registrars
and Secretaries to update the Cases daily as proceedings take place, and
processes are brought to Court, that is, update the Case Inventory, i.e.
process, proceedings and correspondence inventory, Proceedings
History, Pre-trial conferences and Trials. The electronic Judge diary
must also be updated with hearing dates of Cases and what they are
fixed for. There is also an Attachments interface to each Case record for
Orders, Rulings and Judgements delivered by the Judge to be attached
to the particular Case.
It is the responsibility of the Judge to access the CAIS daily to monitor
the updates of their Cases by their Court Registrars and Secretaries and
ensure that they are doing the required updates in the system.
Henceforth, Weekly Cause Lists and Performance Reports including
the NJC Quarterly Report will be generated from the CAIS, using the
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data entered daily. The entire Case Registry containing all civil Cases of
the High Court entered into the CAIS to date is also available for viewing.
A total of 10,800 Cases have been entered into the system to date.
Other business processes that continue from the Court are the ADR,
Appeal and Judgement execution processes, which involve other key
system actors namely, the ADR Officer at the Lagos Multi-door Court
House, who feeds the CAIS with current status of the ADR process
without going into the details, the ACR Cash, who upon application by
the Judgement Creditor, issues the Warrant for possession or Writ of
Fifae and Notice of Attachment and forwards same to the Deputy Sheriff
after the Judge has signed them, for execution of Judgement. The
Deputy Sheriff sends the Judgement execution processes to the Admin
Judge for approval of the execution. Admin Judge returns the approved
execution processes back to the Deputy Sheriff, who assigns the Warrant
to an Execution Bailiff for execution of the Judgement. The execution
process eventually reaches the Chief Judge who has to approve any
proposed Sale of goods levied during execution.
Key system actors involved in the appeals process are, the ACR-Appeals,
Appeals Officer and Appeals Typist, who process the Notice of Appeal
and other processes involved in the compilation and settlement of
the Record of Appeal until the 20 bound copies of the record of
appeal is prepared and forwarded to the Court of Appeal. These further
business processes in the civil litigation case flow are all carried out at
the respective workplaces of these system actors in the CAIS and each
activity that moves the Case forward is captured by the system.
The foregoing is a summary of the new, improved, streamlined and
automated civil litigation process of the High Court of Lagos State. Every
Court Process that is filed in Court is electronically recorded at the point
of filing and is viewable in the system with each activity that has taken
place regarding that process. Processes and Cases can be tracked and
managed, thereby eliminating delays and document loss and reducing
Case processing time. We have created a transparent and easily
accessible Court system which is easy to monitor and improve upon. The
CAIS is also accessible by Lawyers through an extranet platform provided
for them. We are focused on using the CAIS as a productivity tool to
improve judicial process and performance by using the data in the
system to effectively manage Cases before the Court.
Our goal is to improve the delivery of justice to the citizens of Lagos State
through better case management and Court performance
measures/standards.
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A visual power point presentation of the system is attached.
Hon. Justice Abisoye Esther Ayo (Mrs.)
HIGH COURT OF LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

I'm aware that the LASG in conjuction with the DFID started something that never worked, but I'm also aware that the state ministry of Justice and the Judiciary mandated new contractors to work on the project and I have seen them displayed something at the Igbosere highcourt recently..on a LCD Dsplay I hope they get it right anyway..considering a lot of stuffs that may work against them withing the system.