Facilitating access to justice, transparent judicial process, and comprehensive data to policy makers
USAID
Mizan II system was developed under various project funded by different donors in support of access to justice. Each project built on the work of the previous one. The idea originated when it was noted that courts were working in silos, with each court applying different procedures to case registration and handling.
Mizan II system is an integrated case management system for courts, facilitating management of cases, court filing and evidence storage, linking courts, relevant ministries, enforcement, corrections and financial institutions, with direct access for lawyers and the public. Introducing an electronic case management system, helped in unifying the procedures between courts, and across all courts levels.
An example for alimony payment. Step 1: Request for alimony from beneficiary is lodge using Mizan e-services. Step 2: the request is communicated to an enforcement department for judge approval automatically. Step 3: the judge approves the payment request. Step 4: the agreed-on alimony is transferred to the beneficiary account automatically and they receive a notification of the payment.
The Mizan 2 provides easy access through a mobile application to lawyers and members of the public. The App provides information on the court hearings schedule, allows for full case review with up to data scanned document and hearing minutes being instantly available as the hearing concludes. The Mizan 2 also provides notification on enforcement cases specially to women and children who collect alimony cheques, and inform them when the cheque is ready for collection. In the recent weeks, the system piloted an electronic transfer to the beneficiaries account, which saves them from coming to the court all together. Another example was during the covid-19 restrictions, when Mizan 2 App allowed the public to book appointments at the notary public, to reduce number of people receiving the service at any given time.
Currently, there are 2796 active users in the system within the judicial authority, 6317 lawyers using the system by utilizing the lawyers' interface, and 1745 users from other relevant organizations. In addition to 142,722 (13171 females/129551 males) members of the public, with active users' account, utilizing the system e-services. In 2021, a survey was conducted to measure the Palestinian satisfaction on the services of the justice sector. 83% of the survived lawyers mentioned that they now always use the Mizan 2 to manage their cases. In another Mizan 2 users survey conducted in 2018, 87% of the over all Mizan 2 users expressed their satisfaction with the application, while 91 % of the survived judges said that the Mizan 2 system speed up the litigation process.
"In Palestine, the Mizan II has been consistently improved by HJC and shared with other justice institution under bilateral MOUs. Therefore, on a local level, to ensure the optimum benefit from the development of the software, an e-justice committee was formed by all justice institutions, and they produced a matrix of all services that can be developed based on the Mizan II data. As a next step, Sawasya will support HJC in establishing a committee of developer form the various justice institutions to work as taskforce for the development of the software, in order for any improvement on the system/services to apply to all users. Regionally, the project is looking at exporting Mizan II to other countries as digital public good. Several discussions took place with UNDP rule of law programs in the region to share the Mizan II software instead of initiating a new software development process. "
