Videoconferencing in Courts -to- to support cross-border judicial procedures

Transcription

1 Videoconferencing in Courts -to- to support cross-border judicial procedures Peter J.A. van Rotterdam, NGI, Den Haag, 14 Februari 2012

2 Videoconferencing - Who is Peter van Rotterdam? PJAVR Ir. Peter J.A. van Rotterdam MSc Manager/Consultant Business&IT pjavanrotterdam@quicknet.nl +31(0) / /03 NL Proj.Mgr. Videoconferencing in Legal Procedures 2010/10 - current EC Proj.Cons. Transnational Videoconferencing in Judicial Procedures 2

3 Videoconferencing What I am going to tell you Law and Requirements Implementation in The Netherlands Current Situation in The Netherlands Sharing Best Practices in Europe 3

4 Videoconferencing References to NL Law (in Dutch) Wijziging van het Wetboek van Strafrecht en het Wetboek van Strafvordering en enige andere wetten in verband met het gebruik van de videoconferentie in het strafrecht 388 Wet van 16 juli 2005 tot wijziging van het Wetboek van Strafrecht en het Wetboek van Strafvordering en enige andere wetten in verband met het gebruik van de videoconferentie in het strafrecht 275 Besluit van 8 mei 2006, houdende algemene eisen ten aanzien van het horen van personen per videoconferentie (Besluit videoconferentie) 610 Besluit van 27 november 2006, houdende wijziging van het Besluit videoconferentie 20 (2000) Nr. 1 TRACTATENBLAD VAN HET K O N I N K R I J K D E R N E D E R L A N D E N Overeenkomst, door de Raad vastgesteld overeenkomstig artikel 34 van het Verdrag betreffende de Europese Unie, betreffende de wederzijdse rechtshulp in strafzaken tussen de lidstaten van de Europese Unie, met verklaringen; Brussel, 29 mei

5 Videoconferencing Locations interact via two-way simultaneous video and audio transmission Court Room with Judge, Prosecutor, Clerk, Lawyer (option) and Audience 5 Prison Studio with Person to be Heard, Interpreter and Lawyer (option)

6 Videoconferencing Each actor in the court room (judge, person to be heard, prosecutor, lawyer, interpreter, clerk, etc.) must feel comfortable to do his/her job. For good quality videoconferencing both VC Facilities must: Have a high quality, uninterrupted connection between the two VC Facilities Capture a good quality image and sound for providing this to the remote VC Facility (what they see is what you provide) Display the image and sound exactly as received from the remote VC Facility (what you see is what they provide) It is about and also about Court Room Design (Lighting, Acoustics, Furniture etc.) The weakest link determines the quality! 6

7 Videoconferencing Precondition Scope Per Case Practice maintain quality of legal procedures judge decides whether to use videoconferencing or not (lawyer chooses his location: in court or next to client) high volume, low interaction cases - Criminal Court: extending preliminary detention - Aliens Court: aliens detention high costs cases - Criminal Court: rogatory committees (cross-border in/outside EU) 7

8 Videoconferencing Court Room is NOT a Meeting Room Main Differences between Court Room and Meeting Room Meeting Room Can Be Less Formal (no special arrangements) Equipment Can Be Flexible (e.g. sound tracking cameras) Interactive (eye contact important) One Common Language (eye contact important) No Strong Tradition / Ceremony (table vs. table in remote room. everybody sitting) Focus on Remote Desk only (only part of room to be seen) Physical Security (no special arrangements, except for encryption?) Duration usually Fixed (meeting time) Court Room Formal Procedure (regulated by the law) Equipment Must Be Fixed (No Manipulation!) Highly Interactive (body language, reacting to others) Often Multi Language (need for interpreter) Tradition / Ceremony (actors around person to be heard, some actors sit, some stand) Total Room Overview Needed (want to see what is happening) Physical Security (guards in the room, encryption, vandalism-resistant) Duration can be long / unfixed (many small cases / a large case) 8

9 Videoconferencing Requirements stated in NL Law True-to-Life 1. In order to assure the interests of each person involved (person to be heard, judge, lawyer and others) the quality of image and sound should be such that each person involved gets a realistic and clear view on what is happening in the other (remote) location 2. The view should not be manipulated by e.g. zooming in or out and/or focusing more or less on certain characteristics of a person 3. Image and sound should be synchronized 4. Looks, facial expression, mouth movements, direction of view, gestures, posture of each person involved should be clearly perceptible 5. Other persons in the other (remote) location should be visible 6. Interactions between persons (how they react, when they look at and/or speak to each other) should be clearly noticeable 7. Sound should be real-time, audible and allow simultaneous speaking 8. Communication should be possible based on sound only (e.g. while looking through files) 9. Objectivity: each person should be represented in the same way to each other person and each person should have the same perception of eyecontact with all other persons 9

10 Videoconferencing Designed to conform to True-to-Life 10

11 Videoconferencing More Requirements stated in NL Law Consultation facility to consult lawyer (with or without assistance, in one or from the other remote location) not to be heard by others Exchange of Documents facility to share and/or exchange documents (either hard- or softcopy, either in file or new in court session) between both locations Secure the authenticity of the reproduction should be assured in that it is indefeasible it should not be possible to (meaningfully) intercept the reproduction Cross-Border Connectivity it should be possible to connect the system to systems outside Netherlands; each system should therefore adhere to ITU standards for ISDN, VPN, Internet and DSL 11

12 Videoconferencing Requirements from Court Practice Usability It must be possible to use court rooms also for non-videoconferencing proceedings alternate between videoconferencing and non-videoconferencing fast change videoconferencing settings between cases fast (~1 minute) And is must be reliable to use (technically stable) easy to use (not too many options / buttons) 12

13 Videoconferencing Systematic Implementation in NL Upto 2005 Autumn 2005 Year 2006 Year 2007 Early 2008 Research, Mock-Up Trials User Requirements specified into Functional Specification European Tender Contract with Provider Technical Preparations in Court Maastricht + Prison Dordrecht Limited Roll-Out -Alien Detention Cases (Court Maastricht + Prison Dordrecht) -Transnational (Courts Haarlem + Curaçao + The Hague) Evaluation of User Experiences Decision to Roll-Out Nationwide 13

14 Videoconferencing Systematic Implementation in NL 14

15 Videoconferencing Stakeholder Involvement 2002 Research Judges after Mock- Summer 2005 Spring 2006 Autumn 2007 Scepsis, but Council for the Judiciary and Ministry fund implementation Court and Prison Personnel invited to evaluate dedicated Launching Customers (Court Maastricht, Prison Dordrecht) Court Personnel Test with HumanFactorSpecialist Improve Invite Prosecutors, Lawyers, Interpreters to Test Improve Go-Live Improve Improve Evaluate User Experiences Improve Since early 2008 Continuous Improvement 15

16 Videoconferencing Current Situation in NL 15 Courts # Cases 3 Detention Centres and 6 Penitentiairy Institutions Almelo Amsterdam Arnhem 's-hertogenbosch 's-gravenhage Dordrecht Groningen Haarlem Maastricht Middelburg Roermond Rotterdam Utrecht Zutphen Zwolle >1000 alien detention cases (less growth) >100 extending prelim. detention (pilot) >25/year rogatory committees (since 2007) Benefits Costs Savings (less transport, less delay) Safety (easier to keep guard over prisoners on site than during transport) Humanity (prisoners do not like transport) Others (less probable to violate judicial terms) and it supports cross-border legal cooperation with videoconferencing as in EU-treaty Zeist Rotterdam Zaandam Haarlem Zwaag/Hoorn Breda Amsterdam Rotterdam Haaglanden 16

17 Videoconferencing True-to-Life is Key Success Factor (1) -to-life? NOT True-to- interact with one or more persons in your room or in the other room make eye contact to one or more persons notice being spoken to, looked at, pointed at or addressed to determine the direction from where a sound comes see how each person comports him/herself see how persons react to one another, to whom they are looking/speaking see what is on the desk of each person and what they do with their hands 17

18 Videoconferencing True-to-Life is Key Success Factor (2) Videoconferencing NOT being True-to- INSUFFICIENT QUALITY OF IMAGE AND SOUND images are unclear and/or speech is not intelligible images do not show everyone present / everything happening in other room images are not of the same size or quality for all persons images are distorted by camera movements (zooming, tilting or panning) images show strange skin colors, shadows, distracting spectacles reflections images focus on a specific feature of a person sounds and images are not real-time (delayed), aligned (no lip-synchronity) sounds not realistic (volume too high, too low, changes if looking at desk) sounds are indistinguishable when speaking simultaneously 18

19 Videoconferencing True-to-Life is Key Success Factor (3) Videoconferencing NOT being True-to- UNUSUAL LOOK AND FEEL OF THE ROOM positioning/appearance of equipment makes you feel not being in court room floor, walls, ceiling or furniture makes you feel not being in court room lights, acoustics, background noise makes you feel not being in court room perceived positioning of or distances to other persons on your screens differ from actual positioning and distances as if they were in face-to-face hearing 19

20 Videoconferencing True-to-Life is Key Success Factor (4) 20

21 Videoconferencing Why Sharing Best Practices in Europe 1. Due to increasing migration of people within the European Union the number of transnational (cross-border) judicial cases increases;; 2. Videoconferencing as a means to do transnational (cross-border) judicial cases can be of great advantage to limit costs and time;; 3. For videoconferencing to be successful the bottom-line is that each actor in the court room (judge, person to be heard, prosecutor, lawyer, interpreter, clerk, etc.) feels comfortable to do his job. For good quality transnational videoconferencing both VC Facilities must: 1. Have a high quality uninterrupted connection between the two VC Facilities 2. Capture a good quality image and sound for providing this to the remote site 3. Display the image and sound exactly as received from the remote site (weakest link determines the quality!) What you see is what they provide;; what you provide is what they see! Therefore we share best practices on what is good quality (True-to-Life). 21

22 Videoconferencing Sharing Best Practices in Europe NL Ministry of Security and Justice together with entities from 11 member states Austria booking system, joint tests Belgium realizing True-to-Life VC Facility in progress Bulgaria used True-to-Life Requirments as a basis Czech Republic True-to-Life VC Facility realized for Court of Plzen Germany realizing True-to-Life VC Facility in progress Ireland exchanging technical approaches to VC Italy presenting research results Latvia visit to discuss major VC project Malta assessment of current VC Facility Rumania exchanging information on VC Slovenia tbd working on Transnational Videoconferencing True to Life Implementation 22

23 Videoconferencing Sharing Best Practices in Europe Progress Now: - -to- - -to- facilities in Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany - -to- - -to- - Sharing Best Practices with all participants Mid Term Ambition: - Each EU Member State has at least 2 Courts with VC facilities - -to- - To apply VC for transnational (and national) purposes Future Goal: - Further Roll-Out as appropriate 23

24 Videoconferencing Sharing Best Practices in Europe 24

25 Videoconferencing Conclusion and Lessons Learnt is a fair alternative to physical transport and presence in court;; and leads to savings and other advantages without loosing quality of justice Lesson Learnt (in NL) 2. VC-Technology has been proven to be adequately available And 3. Bandwidth a reserved minimum of 1Mb (3.6Mb preferred) is required 4. Housing light, acoustics, positioning and climate must be optimal 5. Commitment check willingness to change way of working of judges etc. (logistics, administration, lawyers, in prison, in court room) 6. Ownership get funding and backing by Senior Responsible Owner 7. Infrastructure unstable infrastructure turns VC into an unreliable tool And Above All 1. True-to-Life is Key Success Factor 25

26 Videoconferencing My Main Message To You For the Transnational Use of Videoconferencing in Judicial Procedures Whereas practice is showing that: technology (bandwith, infrastructure, connectivity, VC) is well available, and cost savings and other benefits are much higher than expenditures, The key success factor for the acceptance by legal professionals is: an excellent, i.e. True-to-Life, quality of images and sound, that supports good interaction between all actors in the court session, as if all actors were in the same court room. Then we move on to the next step: how to best use your True-to-Life VC Facility? 26

27 Videoconferencing What we do in NL and in Europa 27 Thank You for Your Attention!