Specialist Chapter: New E-court System Aims to Simplify Proceedings and Significantly Drive Down Operational Costs in Indonesia

In summary

Indonesia implemented its e-court system for all Commercial Court cases in January 2023. The disputing parties in a Commercial Court case do not need to physically attend most steps of the court proceedings. Paper submissions can be sent electronically through the e-court system, and judges will render their decisions through the e-court system.

Discussion points

• Legal grounds for implementing the e-court system
• Requirement to attend hearings through the e-court system
• Advantages and disadvantages of the implementation of the e-court system
• Technical issues that usually occur in the e-court system

Referenced in this article

• Supreme Court Regulation No. 3 of 2018 on Administration of Cases and Hearings in Courts Electronically
• Supreme Court Regulation No. 7 of 2022 on Administration of Cases and Hearings in Courts Electronically

New e-court system for Commercial Court cases

The Civil Procedural Law adopts the principle that civil cases should be simple, fast and low-cost to provide legal certainty in any civil dispute that disputing parties can solve or settle cases swiftly and cost-effectively.

In light of this principle, Indonesia has finally implemented an e-court system, first used in 2018 for a general civil claim case. In this system, a disputing party can submit its claim through an online system without the need to physically attend court.

The legal grounds for the implementation this system were first set forth under Supreme Court Regulation No. 3 of 2018 on Administration of Cases and Hearings in Courts Electronically.^[1] It is now regulated under Supreme Court Regulation No. 7 of 2022 on Administration of Cases and Hearings in Courts Electronically (SC Regulation No. 7/2022).^[2]

After several years of implementing the e-court system for general civil claim cases, Indonesia has finally also implemented the e-court system for all Commercial Court cases, such as those dealing with suspension of payment, bankruptcy and IP cases based on SC Regulation No. 7/2022.

There are five Commercial Courts within Indonesia. On 24 January 2023, the Commercial Court at the Central Jakarta District Court implemented an e-court system for all its cases.

The disputing parties in a Commercial Court case do not need to physically attend most steps of the court proceedings. Paper submissions – such as the claim, written response, counterplea, rejoinder and written conclusion – can be submitted electronically through the e-court system. At the end of court proceedings, judges render their decisions through the e-court system.

Physical hearings are still required at certain stages, such as for written evidence submissions and fact or expert witness examinations from the disputing parties.

Requirement to attend hearings through e-court system

Following the implementation of the e-court system, attorneys must now have their own e-court accounts to be able to represent their clients in Commercial Court cases.

An attorney can request an e-court account in any District Court within Indonesia. To support the request, the attorney must submit their minutes of oath and identification documents issued by the Indonesian Bar Association.

Advantages and disadvantages

The e-court system was designed to solve Indonesia’s geographic constraints to simplify the judicial system, reduce court costs, and increase public confidence in the judiciary by upholding law and justice.

With the implementation of the e-court system in Commercial Court cases, the hearing process can be more effective. This is in line with the nature of Commercial Court cases, for which there is a set time frame within which judges must issue a verdict.

Based on experience in handling cases through the e-court system and we believe that the proceedings are simpler and faster, and significantly reducing operational costs.

However, some obstacles remain before the e-court system can be fully implemented in Commercial Court cases. Often technical issues such as hearing schedules not properly appearing in the system occur. If this occurs, an attorney needs to physically attend court to resolve the problem, which entails time and cost consequences.

The Commercial Court still needs to improve the system and conduct further promotion to maximise e-court usage.

Footnotes