ACT Law Courts and Tribunal Administration 
Policy Document

Title: ACT Sentencing Database: Access Policy for Subscribers 
Version: 2
Effective date: 21 November 2013

Document Properties

Approval	
Date approved: 	Tuesday, 3 December 2013	
Date effective:	Wednesday, 2 October 2013	
Approved version:	2	
Approved by (name, branch and division):	185	
Review date:	Saturday, 2 August 2014	
Expiry date:	Sunday, 31 August 2014	
	
Details	
Procedure name:	ACT Sentencing Database: Access Policy for the ACT Law Courts and Tribunal	
Procedure number:	n/a	
Policy reference 	ACTSD 2.0	
Category	ACT Law Courts and Tribunal	
Custodian (name, branch and division):	185 Corporate Information and Systems	
Policy advisor (name, branch and division):	[Insert policy advisor details]	
Audience:	Corporate Information and Systems	
Stakeholders:	Insert any stakeholders	
Document location:	http://injacs/portfolio/Courts/ACTLCT%20Procedure%20Library%202/ACTSD%20Access%20Policy%20for%20ACT%20Law%20Courts%20and%20Tribunal.doc	
Registry File Name	<<TBA>>	
Registry File Number	<<TBA>>	
Associated documents:	<<TBA>>	
References & legislation 	<<TBA>>	

Table of Contents
Purpose
What is the ACT Sentencing Database (ACTSD)
Who can access the database?
Access Levels
General subscribers
Other Access
Maintenance of the ACTSD
How does someone get access to the database?
Appendix
Access matrix

Purpose
This document outlines the department’s policy on providing ACTSD access to various users
What is the ACT Sentencing Database (ACTSD)
The ACT Sentencing database (ACTSD) is an online source of reference material for stakeholders that play a role in the justice system. The ACTSD combines case law, legislation, principles of sentencing, sentencing statistics and other information all into one compact database.
Who can access the database?
The Justice and Community Safety directorate (JACS) may grant access to people within the types of organisations  as follows:
•	ACT Judicial Officers including acting Judicial Officers and their support staff;
•	An ACT Government entity or a statutory body concerned with prosecuting offences;
•	An ACT Government entity or a statutory body providing legal services to defendants; 
•	An ACT Government entity or a statutory body concerned with the administration of the justice system in ACT;
•	A non-profit community legal centre in ACT which provides free legal advice to Defendants; 
•	Private practitioners within the legal profession;
•	Self represented litigants through The Law Courts Library;
•	A local government body to the extent it is concerned with prosecuting offences;
•	Any other individual or entity as approved by the Chief Executive of the directorate or their delegate.
Media seeking information on data held within the Sentencing Database are welcome to query the Courts and will be provided with the information as required.
Access Levels
General subscribers
All information captured by the ACTSD will be available to general subscribers through the query mechanism available on the ACTSD interface.
In some instances the power is provided to;
•	The Court or;
•	The Director General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate or;
•	The Director’s delegate;
to suppress information they deem to be otherwise publishable.
Other Access
The other access levels are defined in the access matrix contained in the appendix of this document.
This matrix outlines the access privileges assigned to the following position holders within the ACT Law Courts.
Paid Subscriptions
At this point in time, the ACTSD will be made available to users within the ACT free of charge.  
The ACT Law Courts and Tribunal reserve the right to apportion an access fee in the future. Users deemed to be paid subscribers will be informed that the application of a fee is being considered and through a subscriber consultation process, this access policy will be updated to reflect the charges.
Access to the JIRS will be available to paid subscribers by contacting the NSW Judicial Commission of NSW to organise a subscription.

Maintenance of the ACTSD
The ACT Law Court and Tribunal reserves the right to remove access to the ACTSD from any of its subscribers at any time if it believes that the information is being used in any shape or form that it considers to be inappropriate.
The ACT Law Court and Tribunal reserve the right to remove access from its subscribers to perform periodic maintenance on the system. All foreseeable maintenance interruptions will be notified to subscribers before the work is to be completed.
How does someone get access to the database?
An individual seeking access should go to the Law Courts website (www.courts.act.gov.au), and complete the access request form.
A self represented litigant will have access to the system via the Russell Fox Law Court Library.  Self represented litigants will need to present identification to Library staff before gaining access to the system.

Appendix
Access matrix
Site Area	System Administrators JIRS	System Admin ACT Law Courts	Judicial Officers, Associates and PA’s	Other ACT Law Court Staff	External Content approvers i.e. LPP	General Subscribers	
HTML Coding, Access settings and Developer tools	Full	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	
Data Transfer systems (Data feed)	Full	Write	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	
Data Collection forms and Web forms	Full	Write	Write	N/A	N/A	N/A	
Latest News and Announcement Content	Full	Write	Read	Read	Write	Read	
Main ACTSD interface	Full	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	
JIRS Database	Full	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read