Vic Govt pours $675k into Supreme Court software rollout

The Supreme Court of Victoria has been given $675,000 by the Victorian Government towards a full-scale rollout of its custom-built, proof-of-concept online case management system.

The RedCrest system was designed and built internally by the court in December 2010, with a working prototype operational by April 2011.

It went live in September 2011 as a proof-of-concept operating only in the court’s technology, engineering and construction list, and since then has been extended to be used also in the Court of Appeal and Bushfire Class Action. 

The court is preparing to build a full-scale version of the system to run first as a pilot in the Commercial and Equity division, the court’s largest division, and if successful, to roll out to the rest of the court.

The pilot is expected to go live early next year, a government spokesperson said. The primary users of the system will be legal practitioners, judges, staff and others engaged with the proceedings of the court.

The system was initially developed to replace an existing unsuitable paper-based process. It allows users to lodge and manage case files electronically and online. 

The service will be hosted within a “secure cloud environment” that the court is yet to determine. The exact nature of the environment will be confirmed and sourced through a tender process, a spokesperson said. 

The court currently processes around 200 cases per month and 1400 annually. The system will initially be piloted by around 5000 users.