WiFi comes to Gauteng High Courts

LexisNexis SA and Law Credit have joined forces to furnish the Johannesburg and Pretoria High Courts with WiFi facilities.

LexisNexis, a content and technology solutions company, and digital business solutions group Law Credit, equipped the Gauteng courts with WiFi connectivity this week - allowing visitors to access the Internet via a wireless connection. LexisNexis says legal professionals will now be able to access their subscribed “My LexisNexis” research platform accounts, free of charge.

This follows the successful installation of a WiFi facility in the Cape High Court, last August, which allows visitors and professionals wireless access to any Internet site. “Visitors simply need to purchase data bundles and follow the step-by-step instructional material, visible throughout the corridors of the court, which explains the connectivity process to users,” says LexisNexis.

Increasing productivity in SA's High Courts, says LexisNexis, forms part of the second round of WiFi implementation. The company says it sought to provide content to legal professionals who find having to do research away from court - where they spend the vast majority of their time - time-consuming.

Billy Last, LexisNexis SA CEO, says significant usage of the company's research products via the network is a good indication that subscribers are making use of the service, and that it is beneficial to them. “The launch at the Cape High Court last year was met with great enthusiasm, and as such we are able to continue our intention of delivering this much-needed service across the country.”

According to an international workplace productivity survey, conducted by LexisNexis in June and July 2010, 90% of legal professionals in SA feel that not being able to access information at the right time was wasteful and impeded productivity.

The survey further revealed the majority of legal professionals do not bill the time spent on research, as it would amount to too many billable hours. With a need for legal professionals to work more efficiently identified, LexisNexis says the company ensured it kept abreast of online technology and developed the WiFi facility to “meet the needs of the transforming workplace”.

Last says stakeholders at the Johannesburg and Pretoria High Courts have long seen the need to assist in developing the legal industry as a whole, and through online connectivity. “Working with the Department of Justice over the past year, we have been able to acquire the necessary permission to deliver these facilities to two more courts across the country.”

The LexisNexis court WiFi facility is currently available at the North Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria; South Gauteng High Court, in Johannesburg; the High Court, in the Western Cape; KwaZulu-Natal High Courts, in Pietermaritzburg and Durban; and the Durban Magistrates' Court.