The Strategic Committee for the implementation of Law No. 339-22, which enables the Use of Digital Media in the Judiciary was informed of the plan concerning virtual hearings and the digital access platform, which has been under development since November 2022, based on the regulatory order that regulates these tools.
The aforementioned plan must be approved by the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice in order to initiate the operational process of implementation, which conceives a dynamic based on the context of a programmatic vision of gradualism as essential pillars that correspond to the legislative structure set forth.
The digital access platform will allow users to make, from their offices or wherever they may be, requests for the setting of hearings, deposit of documents, pleadings, submit cases, consult their files and other services 24 hours a day. It should be noted that virtual hearings may be held in all matters except criminal matters.
The Committee is responsible for organizing pilot plans with the digital access system and virtual hearings. These plans are scheduled to begin in the first week of April, in the Civil and Commercial Courts of First Instance of the National District and La Vega, the Superior Administrative Court (TSA), as well as the Civil and Commercial Chamber of the Court of Appeals of La Vega.
The implementation process is designed on the basis of a space that as a mystique a context of functional and institutional awareness that fosters a suitable environment framed in a pluralistic vision. In this sense, the Committee will enable a pluralistic environment where judges, lawyers, civil society and academia can be key players around the evidence on the digital access system, as well as what concerns the virtual hearings and the protocols applicable for its effectiveness and efficiency.
The National School of the Judiciary executes the corresponding training itinerary for judges, clerks and judicial servants. This is a comprehensive training that covers knowledge of the law, the regulations and the products conceived in its regulatory structure, as well as includes the strategy of generating an environment of empowerment and institutional awareness that enhances the need to provide better service to citizens.
About the Strategic Committee
Article 8 of Regulation No. 748-2022 implementing the Law on the Use of Digital Media provides that the Strategic Committee is a governing institution responsible for drawing up institutional guidelines and policies on the use of digital media in the Judiciary. It is in charge of monitoring and controlling the functioning and operation of the tools adopted for the use of digital media in the administration of justice.
The Committee has the power to create the support commissions that may be necessary for the fulfillment of its functions and the due implementation of the aforementioned digital tools, which in turn will have advisory, informative, consulting and any other competencies established by the Committee, always in accordance with the Law and the Regulations.
The aforementioned body must meet ordinarily every 15 days and extraordinarily as often as necessary. It must also submit a quarterly report to the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice in order to communicate the status of the implementation of the digital tools with the pertinent recommendations that guarantee and make viable the effective functioning of the virtual hearings, the platform, the digital signatures and qualified electronic signatures.
The Committee is composed of the President of the Supreme Court of Justice and of the Council of the Judicial Power, Magistrate Luis Henry Molina Peña, who heads it; the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice, Justiniano Montero Montero and Nancy I. Salcedo Fernández; councilor Octavia Fernández; the director of the General Directorate of Administration and Judicial Career, Ángel Brito; the technical general director Rosa M. Magdalena Suarez Vargas, the director of the general administration of the judicial service Mariloy Díaz R. and the director of Information and Communication Technologies, Welvis Beltrán.
