Launched in July 2007, the Commonwealth Courts Portal (CCP) is a joint initiative between the Family Court of Australia, the Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia. The concept of a shared portal became a reality once all three jurisdictions shared the same electronic case management system which is the infrastructure upon which the Portal is based.
The CCP provides free web-based access to information about cases that are before these courts. After registering, lawyers and litigants can keep track of their cases, identify documents that have been filed and view outcomes, orders made and future court dates. Users log on using a single user ID and access multiple jurisdictions from a single central web-based system.
The CCP provides an ever increasing range of services which currently include:
- a view of court information designed specifically to suit the users needs
- the ability to search for relevant information held by the three courts
- access for lawyers to case information from the convenience of their own office
- control and administration of this access by the law firm in which they work
- secure access to information for self represented litigants, and
- the ability to eFile applications for divorce and family law supplementary documents.
Services planned for future implementation include:
- new case management functions including eCourtroom – a feature that enables parties to attend hearings electronically
- a completely revamped home page which will be customised for specific users and will enable users to see at a glance what has changed since their last log on
- an integrated eJudgment feature which will provide easy access to published judgments in matters from inside the Portal
- links to order transcript for matters, and
- a facility to enable eService of documents between registered users.
One of the features of the CCP is the ability to eFile applications for divorce in family law proceedings.
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