The first phase of a five-year project promoted by the Min-istry of Justice, which would ensure full computerisation of the entire judiciary system in the UAE, has been completed at the Al Ain courts.

Work will start soon in Abu Dhabi, and later extend to the other emirates, according to a senior IT industry source associated with the project.

The Dubai courts had independently undertaken the computerisation process in 1996. With the other courts in the UAE getting on to the IT platform in due course, the system in Dubai can easily be integrated with the others, the source added.

"The system in Al Ain is running well, with the module related to the prosecution department.

Because of the controlled area, we decided to start with Al Ain and then roll the system into the other courts, starting with Abu Dhabi," said Houssam Hatoum, managing director of Business Systems House (BSH), which is implementing the project.

The company was also involved with the project for the Dubai courts, implemented between 1994 and 1996.

Now BSH, with offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has brought out a dedicated bilingual solution - just.base - for the judicial system. Three years in development, the writing took up 300 man months and is based on Oracle tools.

The company is in line to implement the solution in Lebanon. A preliminary study has been completed by BSH about the requirements of Lebanon's Ministry of Justice, and will be handed over to the ministry next week.

In an alliance with Hughes Arabia, BSH is pitching for a project from the Saudi Ministry of Interior.
"We have plans to expand into the other regional markets, and Lebanon could be the next step. With just.base, we have the product for that," said Hatoum.

"There have been some very specialised solutions for the judicial system from the U.S. But they were not able to succeed - one reason was the difficulty in integrating processes tuned to the American courts with the requirements here."

There is no uniform pricing for the BSH solution. Any price to the client will also cover the implementation costs carried out by BSH.

Apart from the judiciary, the other likely clients for the solution are the notary public, police forces, defence (military judiciary), municipalities (rents disputes), and legal departments in the larger organisations.

Under a recent award, BSH will implement a rents dispute module at Dubai Municipality.
Hatoum, also the owner of BSH, added that there were no immediate plans to bring in new shareholders into the company.