The Northern Territory is on track to eliminate all hard copy court files from its civil courts by December in a step towards becoming Australia’s first paperless jurisdiction.

The territory is implementing the Odyssey case management system from US firm Tyler Technologies to allow judges to access court files digitally from the bench and chambers.

The civil courts and the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal will introduce electronic document filing from the first half of next year and the criminal courts are expected to be digital only by mid-2021.

Once live, this will enable all criminal matters from apprehension through prosecution and finally to the courts to be managed digitally and paperless.

The Odyssey Case Management System is a fully integrated case and financial management system.

A team of configuration experts from Tyler have been based in Darwin since early 2017 working with local court and tribunal subject matter experts. 

Odyssey was successfully implemented at the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NTCAT) in December 2017 and the Court civil implementation is another step on the road to the Northern Territory being the first completely digital jurisdiction in Australia.