Online Pleas

PROGRAM:  Fellowship

PARTNERS:  Neighbourhood Justice Centre, VIC

FELLOWS: Ezekiel Kigbo

STAGE: Live

DESCRIPTION:  We found that over 60 percent of people that go to court for a minor offence are planning to and plead guilty, so we built Online Pleas. The prototype demonstrates how a guilty plea could be lodged online prior to the scheduled court date for non-complex minor offences. Minor offences include:

• Traffic offences- Theft (Shop Steal)
• Transit offences- Theft (from Motor Car)
• Behaviour in Public- Theft (Bicycle)

Some of the benefits of such a tool include:

• Registry – Reduce processing for non-complex court matters
• Court – Some hearings could be flexibly scheduled into off-peak periods
• Court users – Visits to court can be avoided for minor non-complex offences

Also delivers on a recommendation from a recent review of courts to treat transactional (low-complexity, low-needs) cases through digital channels
The court retains the power to determine that a matter should be heard, via ability to reject a guilty plea.

Review the code on Github or check out the app.