Moroccan Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi said his ministry has prepared a draft law to regulate the digitization of judicial procedures in the civil and criminal fields.
His remarks were made on Monday during an international seminar held in Tangier on the “legislative basis for the digitization of judicial procedures.”
The bill aims at facilitating using digital systems in civil litigation procedures to submit articles of claims, requests, appeals and all judicial procedures electronically before Morocco’s various courts.
According to Ouahbi, it calls for adopting the e-payment system to pay for a judicial fee or a financial procedure, approving professional e-accounts for lawyers, judicial commissioners and experts to help communicate with the courts, as well as approving e-signatures and e-addresses for public administrations and other legal persons and determining the legal impact of the procedures.
The minister explained that the draft law targets using digitization in all stages of the lawsuits, while providing the same guarantees granted to the parties during trials with physical presence and in the same order of effect.
Under the bill, relevant parties may carry out research and investigation, hold virtual hearings and trials remotely through the visual debate technology with the consent of the accused.
The bill further ensures the informational processing of the minutes completed in line with the civil and criminal lawsuit procedures and their e-signature by the party authorized by the law to do so, in addition to the informational processing of the criminal record cards and their e-signature.
The seminar was organized by the ministry “to keep pace with the reform workshops organized by the Moroccan government” to implement the “Digital Transformation of Administration” project by boosting cooperation and exchanging experiences and best practices among various countries in this field.
