Courts to Test Using HP Tablets as Paper Replacement
UK lawyers will get tablets to use during court proceedings. Did someone just find a huge stash of HP TouchPads?
Norwich Crown Court is set to hold a mock trial to test a new tablet system that hopes to replace all paper in the courtroom with tablets. As part of the trial, 35 prosecutors in Norfolk given HP tablets to use instead of paper during court proceedings. Worth up to £1000-a-piece, the tablets scheme is expected to be rolled out across all Crown Prosecution Services departments sometime next year.
The Press Association reports that the scheme is an effort to save money. The tablets will at first be used in less serious cases in magistrates' courts before moving to crown courts. Eventually, courts across England and Wales will distribute tablets to judges, jurors and barristers. The roll-out is to start from April next year and CPS says it will save £50 million across the country by the time of the next parliament.
Though the cost of giving a £1000 tablet to every judge, juror and barrister will be high, Andrew Baxter, deputy chief Crown prosecutor for the East of England, told the Press Association that the price was nominal compared to the savings the scheme would bring, along with the 25 percent cuts the CPS will see over the next four years. Baxter added that hard copies of documents would still be available in the early stages of the scheme, just in case there are glitches.
It's not yet clear what kind of tablets will be used, nor which OS the devices will run. We'll update this post if this information becomes available.

P.s. Android for business? No thank you. Active directory and group policy for the win.
So true, the future is definitely here.
Yeah, I mean in Star Trek, an Ensign gives a tablet to the Lieutenant officer instead of just sending it to the Lieutenant's tablet, which doesn't make much sense either. Shipping tablets around will be costly. I bet the cost to run the Turbolifts in the Enterprise D would be a lot lower.
The problem with this approach is the shift of focus that occurs. Each tablet is designated a certain function and that function only. If we were to use your Star Trek example, the Ensign is probably only uses the tablet for data and not for processing of said data. Utilizing the tablet for more than one purpose is usually what creates confusion. If we're talking computers, I have one machine for gaming and another for work. If I started doing work on my gaming computer, believe me when I say I would resort to gaming when I really should only be doing work.
Soooooooon....
In a more serious tone, I am curious to see what these are; chances are it's not TouchPads. Part of the price likely has to do with proprietary modifications in order to meed the security requirements demanded.
Also good to hear about this. I was getting kinda sick how the media would report every time some high-profile business would adopt iPads, (including, IIRC, a courthouse in the USA) but never mentioned it when any competitor's tablet got the same adoption.
Perhaps a checksum signed by an absolutely trustworthy time server? It's a difficult thing to make secure. Imagine if the judge ordered 20 years in the clink, and a hacker changed it to 2 hours of community service!
That can still happen today regardless of the paper copy. In my experience 99% of the time, once the paper copy is written/signed it disappears into oblivion. Ask your bank to produce the "ink signature" of your mortgage. Watch how many months it takes them to find it. This was a common trick for avoiding foreclosure.
May be true of your bank, but I was specifically referring to court documents that are part of the record. These are not lost; I can walk into the Clerk's office, give an index number, and have the official originals put in front of me within ten minutes.
Forgery and alteration are still possible, but harder than if the official version resides on a tablet or a file server somewhere.
Theres actually software that checks whether or not a file has been changed in any way I forget the name of it though.
@husker: with the cloud growing now that might change. More files available anywhere via a secure tunnel means wider adoption of the technology. When you can scribble down notes via a finger or stylus and have the handwriting recognized flawlessly people will abandon paper.