The Office of the Attorney General, OAG, is planning on going digital in managing its legal cases. It is piloting a digital system, Enterprise Legal Management System (ELMS), which it expects to have fully running by November. Officials say the aim is to handle cases faster and more reliably, which is something that matters to anyone waiting on the outcome of a legal matter.
For years, the OAG has kept track of its work much the way many offices once did – on Excel spreadsheets and manual files. For an office that handles around a thousand legal cases a year, that has meant recording, searching, and following each case largely by hand.
And the workload is growing. According to the OAG’s annual report, increasing caseloads and staffing shortages have put the office under pressure, affecting the time taken to handle legal matters.
Now, that is set to change.
Since April this year, the OAG has been testing the ELMS in collaboration with the GovTech Agency.
The ELMS is a software that will keep the OAG’s records, workflows, and data in one place, rather than scattered across spreadsheets. The OAG says the system will let it record, search, and track legal matters, making it easier to follow a case from start to finish, while improving access to legal information and data.
For now, the ELMS remains in its pilot phase. If it works as intended, the change could mean more than tidier records. It could mean quicker, more reliable handling of the cases the office pursues on the public’s behalf.
Deki Lhazom
Edited by Sonam Wangdi
