For a litigation lawyer in Indonesia, it was common to wait several hours in court before the trial started. In many cases, the trial only takes not more than 10 minutes. We assume that the Supreme Court of the Republic Indonesia (the “Supreme Court”) finally realized that they have to build a better system to simplify the hearing proceedings by introducing the administrative dispute and electronic trial through the regulation of the Supreme Court No. 3 year 2018. The electronic trial or known as E-Court system which consists of E-Filling, E-Payment, E-Summon, and E-Litigation. The E-Court rules and regulations are subsequently refined with the enforcement of the Supreme Court Regulation No. 1 of 2019 (“Perma No. 1/2019”). Perma No. 1/2019 encourages the court to apply the electronic courts (E-litigation) system.

The proceedings of E-Court conducted with the supports of information technology and communication as follows:

• E-Filling: Online Registration.
• E-payment: Online Payment.
• E-Summon: Online Summon.
• E-Litigation: Online Trial.

By registration through E-Court, the party will automatically obtain court fee estimates and payment numbers. The court fee is payable through an electronic channel. The Registrant will receive a case number in the E-Court application and will display a notification that the case number has been registered. The Parties will receive a trial summons through e-mail and it could be seen through E-Court application. However, the e-court proceedings are still subject to the agreement with the counterparty. 

In the first hearing, the Panel of Judges will ask the counterparty (defendant) whether they agree with the trial to be conducted through E-Court. If all parties agree, the Panel of Judges will determine the dates of the hearing for each agenda, which the parties will need to sign of its agreement. The Registrar will upload the hearing dates in the Court Calendar. The parties will need to upload the court document on the determined date and time. In the event, a party does not upload the relevant court document, it will be deemed that the party has forfeited its right.

The E-court process will simplify the ‘paperwork’ trial which only takes less than 5 minutes to upload court documents. However, witnesses and evidence hearing still be held in the court. Nevertheless, witness and evidence hearing can be performed remotely through audio-visual media communication with the consent of the parties.

The court decision shall be deemed to be read to the parties, attended by the parties when the Court Decision is uploaded in the E-Court system.

For now, the E-Court system only applies for District Court, Religious Court, Administrative Military Court, Administrative Court, and Commercial Court. The e-court process will have a good impact on lawyers and clients. It will be time and cost-efficient for lawyers and thus will benefit clients as well.