CaseLines has filed an application to patent the use of blockchain within its evidence management platform to manage the progress of evidence and transform the security of legal cases. By recording each step of the evidence bundle upload process through to being made available to a user as a chain of transactions on the blockchain, the validity of a document can be recorded and presented to interested parties.

Blockchain journey

The purpose of using blockchain to store the transactions in each journey is to ensure that the details of each stage in the journey can be verified against the document being viewed. Blockchain will be used within CaseLines product to store the transactions in the digital journey of an item of evidence within digital justice systems globally, which is claimed to bethe first of its kind in the world. CaseLines believes it would give digital justice systems unparalleled levels of security and trust in the process of handling all types of evidence. While blockchain is a public artifact where each transaction in the digital ledger is permanently recorded the inspection of the blockchain would not reveal evidence and will contain only evidence IDs and hash codes. This means once a piece of evidence is entered into the system, there can be no possibility of records being altered or falsified. It will thereby eliminate the possibility that evidential material submitted to court can be repudiated, as the validity of the document presented will be irrefutable.

Trustworthy provenance

The transactions described in the patent application have been developed using CaseLines’ ten-years of experience of digital evidence management and technical expertise, to invent the correct approach for tying blockchain technology to the challenge of digital evidence security. Paul Sachs, chief technology officer and founder of CaseLines, said the development will ‘not only make the delivery of justice more efficient, both in time and cost, but now makes the provenance of evidence wholly trustworthy.’ He added, ‘we are looking forward to partnering with justice ministries and law firms worldwide to embrace this new technology.’ The company predicts the move will bring them one step further to eliminating all paper from the trial environment.