The Responsible Organisation

The Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice, and Parliamentary Relations is the government body responsible for overseeing Spain's judicial system and its mission is to ensure that it operates efficiently and fairly. The Ministry led the development and implementation of the Virtual Desktop for Digital Immediation (EVID) solution as part of its broader mission to modernise the justice system and improve access to public services.   

Councilbox is a Spanish technology provider with proprietary Blockchain technology applied to citizen service processes. For the EVID project, Councilbox was the technical partner responsible for developing the platform’s software. 

Telefónica is a Spanish telecommunications operator with ICT consulting specialised in Public Administration. Telefónica was involved as a partner in this project.

Kawaru Consulting is a consulting firm partner with Councilbox, specialised in the management of ICT implementation projects. The firm participated in the project implementation phase.

The problem

The Spanish judicial system faced several pressing challenges in relation to court hearings that impacted both efficiency and accessibility of legal processes, and which were identified by the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice, and Parliamentary Relations at the time of designing the solution in question. 

In particular, there was a need to improve the efficiency of legal procedures, particularly court hearings. The traditional requirement for individuals—whether law enforcement officers, legal professionals, or citizens—to be physically present at judicial headquarters for hearings and document submissions led to significant time and cost burdens. In fact, physical attendance requirements often required long travel times, especially for those residing outside the province where the hearings were held, and operational disruptions, such as closing civil guard barracks during the ratification of police reports. Additionally, the difficulty of accessing justice for people in remote areas or those with special needs often created a barrier to equal participation in judicial processes. The inefficiencies extended to document handling as well, as legal professionals had to manually deliver documents, which caused delays and limit the timeframe for submissions.

Finally, there were growing demands for increased transparency, security, and inclusivity in judicial processes, particularly in light of the need to protect sensitive data and ensure that all citizens, regardless of their abilities, could access justice. 

The solution and its implementation

As a response to the identified challenges, the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice, and Parliamentary Relations worked on the Virtual Desktop for Digital Immediation (EVID) with the scope of enhancing public service provisioning. The EVID solution is a cloud-based platform aiming at modernising judicial processes by enabling remote court hearings and digital document management. A key feature of EVID is its  blockchain technology integration, which ensures the security, transparency, and traceability required by judicial procedures. Based on blockchain technology, EVID was designed to address the described issues by offering a secure digital, remote, and accessible platform that streamlines legal procedures, reduces costs and travel, and ensures greater inclusivity and transparency in the justice system. EVID integrates features for remote court hearings, such as pseudonym-based identification for participants, digital document management, and accessibility measures and tools. The system was designed to be scalable and adaptable to other regions or countries, with customisations made based on local requirements. While not open source, the solution can be deployed on public clouds, private SaaS (Software as a Service) environments, or on-premises installations.

The implementation process of the EVID solution began with the Ministry identifying the need for a digital tool that could enhance the efficiency of judicial proceedings. Consequently, the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice, and Parliamentary Relations partnered with Councilbox (spanish GovTech company), Telefónica and Kawaru Consulting.

The adoption process of the platform was incremental and included collaboration with end users as a key element for the tailoring and improvement of the platform. Early in the development, the Ministry prioritised user involvement to ensure that the tool met the requirements of its stakeholders, including judges, lawyers, law enforcement, and citizens. Focus groups and feedback sessions were conducted to collect input on the expectations on the platform’s functioning. During May 2024, several workshops were held to gather feedback from these stakeholders, which resulted in the incorporation of new features, such as pseudonym-based identification for law enforcement and devices to accommodate individuals with special needs. Continuous feedback was encouraged post-adoption to make iterative improvements to the system.

Together with feedback collection, training sessions were organised to ensure that users were prepared to adopt the new system. Legal professionals, judges, and other key stakeholders were trained on how to conduct remote hearings, manage digital documentation, and use the security features of the platform. 

While the platform is implemented and operational, it is not considered a complete development and future plans  comprise its applicability to other areas of Justice and related operators in Spain including the incorporation of Autonomous Communities with delegated powers or related Organisations, Entities and Administrations is being coordinated. Likewise, the Ministry considers that the platform could be replicated also by Justice Administrations of other countries.

Expected benefits 

The EVID implementation opened up significant opportunities for the Spanish justice system.

• The most immediate benefit was the enhanced accessibility and inclusivity it provided. EVID made it possible for individuals in remote or underserved areas to participate in judicial processes without the burden of travel, thus reducing social and economic inequalities. It also offered an accessible environment to people with special needs, using devices that enabled them to fully engage with the system, fostering a more inclusive justice process.
• Blockchain technology ensures that every action performed along the judicial process, such as the submission or modification of documents and the identification of participants, is permanently and securely recorded in a tamper-proof ledger. This feature guarantees that no data can be altered or erased without detection, providing a clear audit trail for all activities within the system.
• In terms of efficiency, the digitalisation of court hearings and legal documentation significantly reduced time spent on administrative tasks, such as scanning, filing, and cataloguing documents, and allowed legal professionals to focus more on their core responsibilities.
• Additionally, the adoption of blockchain technology improved the security of judicial processes by ensuring that all actions and documents were securely traced and stored. Blockchain was chosen as a core technology for the EVID solution to ensure the objectives of non-repudiation, non-manipulation and non-impersonation of attendees attending remotely, ensuring security, transparency, and traceability, in a legal context, where sensitive data such as personal identities, court proceedings, and legal documents are frequently handled.
• Additionally, blockchain also improves transparency across the judicial processes. Since it provides a decentralised and immutable record of events, this technology allows all parties involved (judges, lawyers, law enforcement, and citizens) to trust the accuracy and authenticity of the records without relying on a central authority to verify them.
• Blockchain’s decentralised nature also reduces the risk of single-point failures (i.e., when the central system stops working, in this case the central platform managing online hearings, affects every point of the system) or data breaches, thus ensuring that sensitive legal information is always protected.
• Another key opportunity was scalability. EVID’s design allows for easy adaptation and implementation across regions, opening the door to broader modernisation of judicial systems beyond Spain. 

Main challenges 

The implementation process of the EVID solution by the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice, and Parliamentary Relations faced several challenges, both technical and operational:

• One major challenge was integrating EVID into the existing legal framework and ensuring that it met the diverse needs of the justice system’s stakeholders, including judges, lawyers, law enforcement, and citizens. This required coordination to ensure that remote hearings could be conducted with the same legal guarantees and procedural integrity as traditional in-person hearings. 
• Moreover, ensuring the security and privacy of sensitive data, especially when dealing with pseudonym-based identification and remote participation, posed technical challenges. For this, the Ministry had to ensure that the blockchain technology underpinning the platform provided sufficient safeguards for document traceability and secure identity verification.
• Another challenge was user adoption. Many stakeholders, in particular legal professionals accustomed to traditional procedures, had to adjust to new ways of working. For this, training sessions and support were provided.
• Finally, the implementation needed to consider differences in technological infrastructure capacities across regions. The implementation team had to ensure that remote hearings and digital procedures were accessible, even in areas with less developed digital infrastructure.

Link: https://www.administraciondejusticia.gob.es/-/soluciones-escritorio-virtual-de-inmediacion-digital

Juan Miguel Lopez de Francisco - Councilbox

Email: juanmi.lopez@councilbox.com