Whanganui MP and Minister of Courts Chester Borrows has demonstrated new technology that is expected to save Ministry of Justice and police staff tens of thousands of hours of work.
Currently under development by the Ministry of Justice, the new "eBench" software is aimed at modernising the court system by reducing its reliance on paper.
"Our courts are old-fashioned in that everything is still paper-based and requires manual handling to move it through the system. With 250,000 police charges filed each year, this paperwork imposes a significant cost on the court system," Mr Borrows said.
The new technology will allow judges to manage criminal cases electronically and see charges processed up to 70 per cent faster.
It is expected to save 93,000 man-hours of work annually by eliminating the need for courts to print, sign-by-hand, ink stamp, photocopy, courier, fax, post, file, locate and distribute papers.