Benefits and Achievements of ICT Adoption by the High Courts of Malaysia *Zaiton Hamin, **Mohd Bahrin Othman and ***Ani Munirah Mohamad *Accounting Research Institute HICoE and Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia ** Students’ Affairs and Alumni Division and Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia *** Faculty of Law, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia *zaiton303@salam.uitm.edu.my, **mohdb916@salam.uitm.edu.my, ***animunirah@gmail.com Abstract—This paper is drawn from an ongoing research which attempts to examine the socio-legal implications of the current adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) on the delivery of the civil justice system of the High Courts of Malaysia. Among the objectives of this research paper is that it aims to critically examine the benefits and achievements of ICT adoption in the abovementioned courts. This research also aims to propose recommendations for the amendment to the relevant statutes, improvement to the practice directions, and to propose best practices and code of conduct in eliciting improvements to the ICT adoption by the Malaysian courts. The research adopts a qualitative method, comprising of the collection of primary data (which involves field work adopting the case study design at the High Courts of West and East Malaysia) and secondary data (which involves library-based research). The primary data which have been generated is analysed by using the computer aided qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti version 6.2 prior to reporting of the same. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the body of knowledge on ICT adoption by the courts of Malaysia. Keywords- information and communication technology; ICT adoption; courtroom technology; e-court; e-justice I. INTRODUCTION The information and communication technologies (ICT) have connected people around the world in a way never before envisaged [1] and recently have made its way to the courtrooms. Numerous literatures point out the benefits and potentials of ICT in changing the way people do their works, for instance better access to the courts, better performance and efficiency of the justice system, and better transparency system on part of the courts. Hence, this paper discusses the background of ICT adoption by the High Courts of Malaysia and the benefits and improvements achieved thus far. The first section of the paper discusses the research problem of the study, highlighting the research question, the research objectives and the scope of the research. The second section describes the research methodology that is chosen for this study, which involves both library based research and also fieldwork, followed by the third section which reviews the literatures on the concept and applications of courtroom technology and its benefits and advantages. The preliminary findings of the research are presented in the fourth section. The paper concludes with the significance and the proposed outcome of the study. II. RESEARCH QUESTION AND OBJECTIVES At the basic practical level, this paper attempts to address the research question of: what benefits and achievements have been attained following the ICT adoption in the civil justice system of the High Courts of Malaysia. In this context, there are two objectives to this research; the first is to examine the benefits and achievements of ICT adoption in the civil justice system of the High Courts of Malaysia. Another objective of this research is to propose recommendations for the amendment to relevant laws, improvement to the practice directions, and to propose best practices and code of conduct in implementing ICT in the courts. III. SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH Since the thesis of this research is to critically examine the achievements of ICT adoption in the civil justice system of the High Courts of Malaysia, the subject matter of this research is the concept of courtroom technology. Based on the literature survey and the current applications of courtroom technology adopted in Malaysia as discussed in [2], [3], [4] and [5], the discussion on the ICT adoption is in relation of the rules of procedure, namely the Rules of High Court 1980 and the provisions on procedures contained in specific statutes, the rules of evidence, namely the Evidence Act 1950, the rules relating to computer crimes, namely the Computer Crimes Act 1997, the rules of personal data protection, namely the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, practice directions and the process, practices and procedures of courtroom technology itself. In addition, the focus is on the civil justice system of the High Court level of Malaysia. IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This research adopts a qualitative method, which engages in both primary and secondary data. The collection of primary data involves field work in which the data are generated from a case study that focuses on two units of analysis representing the High Courts, one being the High Court in West Malaysia i.e. High Court in Kuala Lumpur, and another being the High Court in East Malaysia i.e. High Court in Kuching, Sarawak. The units of analysis for the case study and the purposive sampling for the units of analysis are described in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 respectively. The instrument that is used is face-to-face semi-structured interview. The respondents are individuals involved directly with the application of ICT at each of the courts, being the This work is financially supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) under the eScienceFund Grant No. 100-RMI/SF 16/6/2 (2/2012). 2012 IEEE Symposium on Humanities, Science and Engineering Research 978-1-4673-1310-0/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE 1233