Assessing Court Record Status and Designing Automation System: The Case of High Courts in Oromia

Abstract

This study is an assessment of court record status and designing automation system in the case of selected high courts of Oromia, Ethiopia. The research approach followed in this study was descriptive research approach along with system prototype designing procedure using Content Management System platform on Drupal 7.6 Content Management Software as a prototype which is suitable for Windows operating system PHP that can be applied for scripting language as well as apache webserver. Regarding to sampling techniques simple random sampling techniques applied. Among the 168 samples determined by Hyper geometric Distribution sample formula, 164 respondents participated in the structured questionnaire session and 15 interviewees selected purposively and exclusively from the population and participated in the Key Informant Interview session. The study also employed observation and document review methods to collect primary data. The result of the study revealed that the major challenges in court record management were the shortage of technicians [98%], unavailability of infrastructures and resources (well-run computers, reliable internet network, etc.) [90%], lack of consistent in-staff training in using computer based system [83%], and constraints in technology adoption of clients and employees [32%]. The overall usability evaluation of the system prototype found to be 88% (Mean), in which 91.25% of the respondents indicated their positive agreement on the usability of the system prototype, and the prototype accepted by the samples as easy, useful, functional, and user friendly. Likewise, result of the interview indicated that there is severe court record related problems in their respective courts that would be solved and secured if the court record were fully automated and controlled digitally in web based system. After designing the prototype, quantitative evaluation also conducted to evaluate the usability of the prototype using 7-point Likert scale, and 16 samples purposively selected from record officer and Information and Communication Technology technicians in the courts. The study also forwarded recommendations for the Ministry of Justice to encourage and support the development of an appropriate web-based court record management system in high courts, which is greatly support the organization to facilitate its services effectively.