The Federal Court of Australia is set to move its CourtPath case and document management system to run in Azure, paving the way to augment it with cloud-native AI services.
CourtPath is an internal case management system and application suite, providing a single point of upload and access to documents relevant to legal proceedings.
It was designed to replace a number of “digital applications” that had been progressively but individually purchased according to need.
As Judges, registrars and staff had to move between these systems to perform work, the courts sought a more efficient and integrated way to operate, resulting in CourtPath.
After being developed in-house, the platform first became available to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia in 2022, before being deployed to all Federal Court Judges and registrars in March of last year.
The next step is to re-host CourtPath to run on cloud infrastructure, and to augment it with emerging AI capabilities.
Federal Court of Australia chief information and digital officer Nathan Price told iTnews that shifting CourtPath into the cloud is a central focus for the remainder of 2025.
The move is part of a broader cloud transformation initiative at the Federal Court, with other systems currently being assessed for their suitability to run in the cloud.
The Court will also seek to augment the case management capabilities of CourtPath through 2026.
“Following established whole-of-government principles and partnerships, the courts utilise Microsoft Azure and have access to the broad range of AI and cognitive learning services available in the Azure suite,” Price said.
“As these tools are available directly through the Azure platform, the project team will continue to explore opportunities to integrate AI into core CourtPath services and workflows.”
Price anticipates using this as the foundation for a future redevelopment of the Commonwealth Courts Portal, which is how non-Court staff such as legal firms can interact with and track cases and documents.
“We expect the replacement of the Commonwealth Courts Portal to be a significant program, enabled by the technical foundations established through the successful delivery of CourtPath,” Price said.
“Initial planning is underway, and work is expected to commence in the next financial year.”
On the AI front, the Court also plans to deliver an AI-enabled record management solution in late 2025, which is intended to improve record-keeping compliance with relevant authorities.
