SINGAPORE — To provide the public with more access to legal information — with the ultimate aim of resolving a greater number and variety of disputes amicably before they reach the courts — a slew of initiatives are under way to bring about a fundamental shift in the Republic’s justice system.

Central to the new approach is a Primary Justice Project — which, among other things, involves building up a corps of “primary justice” lawyers to provide basic legal services at a fixed fee.

The idea is to provide litigants an intermediate step between self-help and commencing an action in court, similar to the concept of primary healthcare providers in the healthcare industry.

At the same time, litigation costs will be reduced through various measures such as conducting hearings of short civil matters via smartphones. The court is also exploring the feasibility of allowing offenders to plead guilty to regulatory offences using smartphones and personal computers.

The initiatives were announced yesterday by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon at the Subordinate Courts workplan seminar. CJ Menon cited “information inadequacy” and litigation costs as two of the challenges in the judiciary’s bid to “enhance justice”.

“Justice that cannot be accessed because it is beyond the reach of those who need it ceases to serve its fundamental role of assuring legitimacy in our social framework,” he said.

The proposed initiatives are “guided by the prime objective of securing the ends of fair, accessible and customised justice for all”, he added.

Explaining the concept of “primary justice”, which he acknowledged may be new to some among the legal fraternity here, he noted that when a person falls ill, he will first attempt to self-medicate before turning to a primary healthcare provider.

“It is only where a case cannot be resolved by a primary healthcare provider that it will then be escalated to the specialist or even to a hospital for in-patient care,” he said.

“Like healthcare patients, litigants also attempt forms of ‘self-help’. Some try to negotiate with the other party, while others might seek assistance from legal clinics. If these attempts fail, they might resort to hiring lawyers to have the matter resolved by the court.”

Over time, the Primary Justice Project will establish a scheme of “paid, basic legal services geared towards settlement”.

“It is hoped, that in due course, it will embed a pro-settlement and pro-alternative dispute resolution culture in our society,” said CJ Menon.

To promote amicable resolution of disputes concerning motor accident claims, the Sub Courts’ Civil Justice Division will publish a guidebook to provide “a range of likely liability findings for a comprehensive series of motor vehicle accident scenarios”.

Among other things, the courts will also improve support for litigants-in-person by publishing tool kits that provide information about court processes. Based on a study conducted by the courts between December 2009 and January 2010, litigants-in-person tend to have lower education and earn less income in general.

On the use of smartphones to conduct hearings for short civil matters via videoconferencing features, CJ Menon noted that “given the proliferation of smart phones, this initiative will generally not entail additional costs for either the litigants or lawyer. In fact, parties will save on travelling and waiting time, and litigation costs will be reduced as a result”.

Lawyers TODAY spoke to felt that a faster resolution of disputes — and a drop in the number of cases being escalated to the courts — would not necessarily reduce their earnings.

Lawyer Jason Dendroff said: “If you do clients a good service … clients will come back. When I look at it objectively, I think (lawyers) shouldn’t be so concerned that this Primary Justice Project will reduce their legal fees.”

He added: “Because lawyers are also officers of the court and owe a duty to the court to try and see whether you can best facilitate some form of settlement.”

Lawyer Abraham Vergis felt that firms might need to change their business model to handle a greater turnover of cases.

“The role of the the lawyer will change from being a litigator to one who facilitates mediation and early settlement through negotiation,” Mr Vergis said, adding that firms will have to adopt a “new mindset” of finding the most cost-efficient resolution.