Revitalizing Public Service with Process Automation: A Case Study on County Court of Victoria

The County Court of Victoria, which hears about 12,000 cases a year, was struggling with an overwhelming amount of paperwork. The existing legacy case management system was not comprehensive and was difficult to use. The court needed to modernize its high-volume paperwork management but was unsure of where to start or which technology to use. The first process that needed attention was the directions correspondence workflow, which generated hundreds of pieces of correspondence that had to be individually printed and assigned. The next challenge was the convoluted manual process of auditing and compliance, which required pulling files from different locations and was difficult to manage due to lack of a top-down view of all activities. Lastly, the court faced the challenge of collecting information for cases that had a plea or trial which may not be recorded in the case management system. The existing method was antiquated and fragmented, requiring hard copy questionnaires to be transposed and typed into spreadsheets.

The County Court of Victoria is a public sector organization based in Australia. It hears about 12,000 cases a year, including criminal and civil cases, and has jurisdiction over all criminal matters except murder and treason. The court serves Victoria’s 6.4 million people and is committed to providing prompt service. However, the court was struggling with overwhelming paperwork and a legacy case management system that was difficult to use. The court recognized the need to modernize its high-volume paperwork management and sought a digital and automated solution to replace its paper-based case management processes.