104 / 462
g a z e t t e
april
1991
Minitel: Services for
the Legal Profession
The costs to solicitors of issuing a
District Court Civil Process may be
greatly reduced by the introduction
of a computer based information
system carried through the Minitel
network.
ITAZ Database provides compre-
hensive up-to-date information on
each of the 50,918 townlands and
4,000 towns and villages of Ireland.
Access to t he i n f o rma t i on
through Minitel enables solicitors to
produce accurate documentation
for debt collection purposes within
five minutes. Without the use of the
system, it can take an average of
six telephone calls over two days to
accumulate the necessary details
for the issue of a district court civil
process.
Even then there is no guarantee
t ha t t hese t i me c on s um i ng
telephone calls have garnered the
correct information. There is no
current up-to-date index to the
townlands of Ireland. The last such
index p r i n t ed was t he 1901
Topographical Index to t he
Townlands of Ireland. It has been
out of print for almost f i f ty years
and is something of a collector's
item.
The correctness of the address
of the person to whom a District
Court process is being sent is a pre-
requisite if a firm of solicitors is to
successfully sue for monies owed.
The postal address is designed only
for the delivery of mail by An Post.
It cannot be relied upon to deter-
mine the correct District Court Area
for the issue of a civil process for
the sitting of the District Court.
Hence, the necessity for numerous
phone calls to ascertain the correct
address.
Such information will become
even more important when the
Department of Justice completes
its review of the existing structure
of the 250 District Court venues
throughout the country.
Announcing the review in 1989,
Gerry Collins, the then Minister for
Justice, stated that the existence of
250 District Court venues could no
longer be justified in the light of
improved methods of travel. It is
believed that at least eighty of
those venues will be abolished
soon. This will lead to a distribution
of the territories of the abolished
District Court sittings.
As a result, a smaller number of
District Court areas will cater for
larger geographic territories. This
will have major implications for
solicitors in the areas of collection
of unpaid monies to suppliers and
wholesalers and the issue of civil
proceedings.
Once the change in territories
comes into effect, it will be very
difficult for solicitors to determine
the correct district court area for
the civil processes as no other
person or organisation in Ireland
has access to the information in the
ITAZ database.
The ITAZ database provides
comprehensive information on
each of 50,918 townlands and
4,000 towns and villages of Ireland.
Each townland, t own and village is
supported w i t h the f o l l ow i ng
information: the district electoral
division; the District Court areas,
both summary and civil; barony,
civil parish; Garda station serving
the particular townland; and the
ordnance survey map reference
numbers.
In respect of each District Court
area, the following information is
provided: District Court number;
time of court sittings; day of
month; month of the year; District
Court clerk's name, address and
telephone number; mode of service
of court documents; and Circuit
Court venue on appeal from the
District Court.
It is estimated that 75 per cent
of all firms of solicitors use
computers to some extent. It is
now common for larger practices to
have a systems partner who has
responsibility for the application of
c ompu t er t e c hno l ogy to t he
business. Computerisation offers
the legal profession more op-
portunity to practise law instead of
wasting time rooting through old
and dusty files.
Solicitors can gain access to
the ITAZ database through the
on-line Minitel system or through
t he pu r chase of a s o f t wa re
package.
Minitel cons t i t u t es Ireland's
introduction to high technology
information systems through the
use of a 'phone line and data
network'. The Minitel service offers
a commercial system for the
delivery of non-voice electronically
based services such as videotex,
electronic mail and transactional
services. It is a mass market
service directed at bo th t he
business and residential users and
is modelled on the successful
French Teletel service, which has
been in operation since 1981.
The Minitel service can be best
envisaged as a non-voice telephone
style service. The services are
hosted on the system by third party
service producers, such as the ITAZ
database. The user, in this case the
solicitor, gains access to the
service by way of a Minitel set
which is used instead of the normal
telephone handpiece.
The Minitel set is a small screen
for viewing text and graphics,
rather like a small television or
computer screen, and a keyboard
for inputting information. Among
the services offered, or planned to
be offered to users, include general
information, trans-actional services
interactive communication and
computational services.
Service providers, such as ITAZ
database, develop a computer-
ised se r v i ce wh i ch is t hen
connected to the Telecom Eireann
data network. There is no one
central computer or database. Each
provider puts together its own
system which is then connected to
the network.
Users take out a separate sub-
scription to the screenphone
service from Minitel Communica-
tions Limited. The billing for
charges incurred is also separate.
Users follow a log-on procedure
and enter a simple access code to
. obtain the desired service.
The total cost of the Minitel
service to the user consists of t wo
components: the rental charge for
the Minitel screen; which is £5 a
month and the call costs for the
services used.
Users have the option to pur-
chase the screenphone and avoid
the rental charges, if they prefer.
Call charges are based on the call
duration and the tariff rate that
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