Scottish prosecutors are moving into the tablet age by pioneering the use of iPads in court.
Falkirk and Perth sheriff courts are among those which will use the devices to test their efficiency in a court room setting.
A specially designed app is being used by prosecutors to review and manage case documents in court.
The pilot will cost £310,000 to run. The cost covers the price of the hardware itself the iPads on which the depute fiscals will work and the software from which the programme will run. Money has also been set aside in the budget for staff training.
Initially, the iPads will only be used in summary cases those not serious enough to feature a jury and, therefore, held only before a sheriff.
They include pleading diets at which an accused will say whether they are guilty or not, and, following guilty pleas, those where a fiscal will need to narrate the facts of a case.
They can also be used at intermediate diets, which investigate whether a case is ready to go to trial.
Catherine Dyer, of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), welcomed the trial project, which will go live in coming months.
Often fiscals are forced to attend court with a blizzard of paperwork for each case they are dealing with that day. It is not unusual for them to have dozens of cases to get through in a few hours.
Using a single tablet device, such as an iPad, to store all information should, in theory, make the task easier and quicker.
She said: “COPFS recognises the need for innovation and the use of new technologies. This latest development follows on previous successful initiatives using modern technology, such as texting of witnesses.
“Prosecutors recognise the need to maximise our efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint.
“This pilot is expected to dramatically reduce the current need for huge amounts of paperwork, free up valuable staff time, and further improve the security of our case information.”
The “Case Management in Court” pilot will be evaluated when it concludes its trial period, with a view to a national roll-out later in the year.
Lerwick Sheriff Court in Shetland is the third judicial setting in Scotland to trial the new equipment.
Scottish courts have slowly begun to embrace new technology. Last year it was agreed for the first time that cameras would be allowed to film court proceedings without the permission of all parties involved, as long as they did not identify those who had not consented to the filming, or any jury members.
However, the court service has not been immune to technological blips.
At Perth, veteran judge Sheriff Robert McCreadie has embraced gadgetry by taking to the bench with a laptop computer instead of the more traditional pen and paper when dealing with the Fair City’s criminal element.
But in December 2007, he had to halt court proceedings when he pressed the wrong button and wiped details of a case.
On another occasion, he sent a jury home for the day because his computer crashed and he was unable to get it running again.
Instead of taking written notes, Sheriff McCreadie delayed the trial until his laptop was fixed the following day.
On another occasion, he briefly left the bench before returning to tell a solicitor that the “W” button on his keyboard was not working.
Later he halted another case to tell the solicitors and accused persons in court that the “E” key was not working properly.