GOOD news for lawyers who comply with timelines set for a particular case - they will not have to go to court for pre-trial conferences (PTCs) when a new IT system is launched in the second half of the year.

On Saturday, Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong announced the launch of the new system which will electronically monitor every case against the timelines set by the courts in his first speech as head of the judiciary at the opening of the Legal Year.

CJ Chan said that where PTCs are needed, 'we hope to conduct more of them through e-mail and reduce the need for physical attendances'. E-PTCs which were introduced as a pilot programme last year for admiralty cases may be extended to cover 'other kinds of proceedings'.

Lawyers said that not having to go for PTCs, which are a means by which the court keeps track of cases, takes a big burden off their shoulders. 'By and large, lawyers do comply with timelines but still have to travel down to the courts and sometimes wait more than an hour to attend the PTC which may last only a few minutes,' Low Chai Chong, litigation partner at Rodyk & Davidson said.

While the Supreme Court met its efficiency targets in 2006 with respect to disposing of and clearing cases and availability of trial dates, CJ Chan said there was a need to speed up disciplinary processes.

'Our records show that the average time taken for disciplinary committees to complete their cases has doubled from 7.5 months in 2002 to 15.4 months in 2006.' CJ Chan noted that where the chairman of the disciplinary committee is a senior counsel, it is difficult to arrange for the four members of the DC to meet and make its report.

'We need to reform the structure of the DC. A working committee has already studied the problem and has made some preliminary recommendations.' CJ Chan also said he will convey his recommendations after consulting the Law Society to the Minister of Law for amending legislation if necessary.

CJ Chan also said that the nature of 'impropriety' disclosed by disciplinary cases last year involving lawyers from small firms 'suggests that the income gap between the medium and large-sized law firms on one hand, and the small law firms on the other, is getting wider'.

He noted that they have not benefited from globalisation, have yet to recover from the 'loss of scale fee conveyancing' and asked the Law Society to make a 'special effort this year' to ameliorate the problems of the small law firms.

This article first appeared in BT on January 08, 2007