Circular No 258/2018 Dated 17 Oct 2018 To Members of the Malaysian Bar Implementation of the E-Review Module in Court of Appeal and Federal Court The Deputy Chief Registrar (Operations) of the Federal Court, Sabariah Binti Othman, has extended to us a copy of a notice entitled Makluman Pelaksanaan Modul E-Review di Mahkamah Rayuan dan Mahkamah Persekutuan, dated 16 Oct 2018, pertaining to the implementation of the e-review Module in the Court of Appeal and Federal Court. According to the notice, e-review is an online forum within the e-court System which enables judicial officers and legal representatives in a case to conduct case management via exchange of written messages without having to attend court. Please be informed that the e-review Module will come into operation on 22 Oct 2018 (Monday). Details of the training sessions (which are identical) on the usage of the e-review system are as follows: Dates: Times: Venue: 18 and 19 Oct 2018 (Thursday and Friday) 22 and 23 Oct 2018 (Monday and Tuesday) 11:30 am to 12:30 pm 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm Bilik Mesyuarat Utama, Aras 2, Palace of Justice, Putrajaya The notice we received is attached for your reference. Kindly contact 03-2733 1313 or email efshelpdesk@kehakiman.gov.my if you have any enquiries regarding the e-review system. Alternatively, you may contact the e-court Division by telephone at 03-8880 4150, or by email at efshelpdesk@kehakiman.gov.my. Thank you Roger Chan Weng Keng Secretary Malaysian Bar
INFORMATION ABOUT ONLINE CASE MANAGEMENT (e-review) AT SUPERIOR COURTS, PALACE OF JUSTICE What is e- Review An online forum within the e-court System which enables judicial officers and legal representatives in a case to conduct case management via exchange of written messages without having to attend court. Objective i) To reduce court appearances (in-person) for case managements before the Registrars at the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court. ii) To save time and expense of having to attend court in person to deal with preliminary matters. Who can use Legal Representatives [lawyers from legal firms or government agencies who are registered users of e-filing System (EFS)]. Each legal representative must have an EFS login ID and password to login into the EFS to participate in any e- Review session. The legal representative must be authorized by the legal firm or the agency to conduct e-review for any given case and have the case be assigned to the person s profile in EFS. Trial Run Date: 18 to 19 October 2018 Legal representatives who attend case management (for selected cases) on these dates will participate in a handson e-review training using their actual cases during the case management sessions with the Registrars. (They have been identified and informed in advance to come prepared with their EFS login ID and password.) For this purpose, the Court will provide laptops at the case management area for Court of Appeal at Level 1 and at Federal Court s Registry at Level 2. Other cases fixed for case management on these dates will proceed as usual. 1
Training for e-review Date : 18-19 and 22-23 October 2018 Time : -11.30am -12.30pm & -2.30pm 3.30pm (Repeat sessions, anyone can walk-in for any one of the sessions) Venue : Bilik Mesyuarat Utama, Aras 2, Palace of Justice Lawyers, especially those who have cases or matters to attend to at Palace of Justice during these dates and allocated times are encouraged to join). Implementation Full implementation Start Date : 22 October 2018 (Monday) Matters dealt with during initial implementation of e- Review: i) All civil appeals fixed for case management before the Registrars. (Further direction will be issued regarding criminal appeals). ii) For cases already fixed for case management for the second time (or more), the case management will be also be conducted by way of e-review, unless directed otherwise by the Registrars. Conduct of e- Review session i) e-review may be used for preliminary, interlocutory or procedural matters that may arise during case management of the civil appeals. It may be used only for issues that may be considered and determined by a Registrar. ii) iii) iv) Parties should use language and conduct themselves professionally as they would during an in-person court appearance. Any message submitted during the e-review using the login ID of the legal representative is taken to have been submitted by the legal representative and that he or she has actual knowledge of its contents. All messages will be visible to all parties and the Registrar. 2
v) Undertakings given during e-review are as binding as if the undertaking were given in person. vi) All messages in the e-review will be recorded and saved in the e-court System as Notes of Proceeding. Cut Off Times The e-review system works as follows: i) Upon registration of appeal, the system will auto-generate a notice which contains the appeal number and a date for case management, together with an e-form (CM Template) listing down queries for appellant to fill in and list of actions to be completed. ii) The system will also auto-schedule a case management date within a month. iii) For the first case management, the Appellant needs to complete and submit the CM Template. iv) Any party to the case may initiate the e-review session within this one month period. v) However, during this initial implementation period of e-review, the Registrars will handle e- Review session from 9.00am until 3.00pm for every case listing date. vi) Parties are advised to login into the e-filing System on the case management date to check their messages. This is to ensure all queries from the Registrar or from the other party, are responded to promptly, to enable the Registrar to conclude the case management session for the day. This arrangement may be reviewed once everyone is familiar with the workings of e-review system. e-review User Manual Parties are advised to check the e-review User Manual for guidance on setting up of login ID, case assignments and conduct of e-review. e-court Division, Federal Court of Malaysia. 15.10.2018. The e-review User Manual will be made available at the e-filing System on 18 October 2018. 3