As some of you may know, besides writing these columns I am also a lawyer qualified by the Macau Lawyers Association. I try to deviate from issues related to my profession, taking into consideration that you have more things to do than read about the judicial system. Well, today I will make an exception and write about an issue that should have been regulated many years ago: digital justice. The Macau Government should put in place a system that permits all actors in the justice system to practice acts through email. Yes, on May 6, 2016, we have yet to have lawyers sending an email with their work to the courts and courts sending their opinions in the same way. It is proved in many countries to be safe and Macau should not be an exception. We would save the planet and would save costs for everyone, including those who ask courts to decide their disputes. It is not hard. There are systems that can be used as an example. Portugal, for instance, which for some years has used emails and online platforms as the means to involve all parties, notified, and called upon to appear in court. One could say that this would take jobs from competent people. I vehemently disagree. This would allow people to better execute their jobs and in a prompt fashion. Others say: yeah, but Macau is so small that the papers can be delivered to courts in five to ten minutes after they’re dispatched from the offices. The Post Office will also have a means to continue to notify the intervenient parties. Those that have the fate of working with me already know that I do not like paper – except this great newspaper you are reading and all the other newspapers you read. Paper, for me, is part of the past. Well, I still read books. But having to print as many copies as the parties involved plus one, or printing paper, is part of the past – a far past in some countries but still a present in the Special Administrative Region. So, my dear Government, please help update our lives to the present and try to regulate things in such a way that we can all use the great tools that technology has given us: sparing trees, helping the environment, and doing so many other good things for all of us. Justice in Macau would celebrate greatly.
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