CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Those responsible for administering justice systems in many parts of the world are
increasingly turning toward digitization and technological solutions, often with the goal of
improving the efficiency and accessibility of justice (Lupo & Barley, 2014).
Man by nature is social, gregarious and cannot live in isolation. To maintain peace and
harmony in the society, man has to fashion out conduct and some laws to govern the
conduct of members of the society. When people appreciate these codes of conduct and
laws, protection of lives and properties are guaranteed. Generally investigation is the
observing of persons or objects on the move and supplying a timely ordered sequence of
respective location data to a model e.g. capable to serve for depicting the motion on a display
capability. The traditional and age-old system of intelligence and criminal record maintenance
has failed to live up to the requirements of the existing crime scenario. Manual processes
neither provide accurate, reliable and comprehensive data round the clock nor does it help in
trend prediction and decision support. It also results in lower productivity and ineffective
utilization of manpower. The solution to this ever-increasing problem lies in the effective use
of Information Technology. Crime Investigation Information System uses computer-generated
records as an interface for integrating and accessing massive amounts of location-based
information (Blackstone & William, 2012).

. Crime investigation software helps co-ordinate vast amounts of location-based data from
multiple sources. It enables the user to layer the data and view the data most critical to the
particular issue or mission. It is used world over by police departments, both large and small, to
provide solutions for crime analysis, criminal investigation, traffic safety, community
policing, Intranet/Internet mapping, and numerous other tasks. Crime investigation system helps
crime officers determine potential crime sites by examining complex seemingly unrelated
criteria and displaying them all in an interface. It also helps them map inmate populations,
fixtures, and equipment to provide for the safety of inmates by separating gang members,
identifying high-risk or potentially violent inmates, and identifying hazardous locations
in an area. It reduces the potential for internal violence by providing better command and
control. Traditionally, these activities have been supported by paper and pen. Police officers

1
now have the ability to immediately generate crime report directly relevant to the situation
at hand. Police agencies collect vast amounts of data from many sources including called-
for-services, arrests, first information reports and daily report. The same information provides
a powerful decision making tool for investigators, supervisors, and administrators (Blythe &
James, 2014).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Nigerian lawyers’ capacity in using information technology resources to create, organize,

process, store, retrieve and disseminate information is poor, yet today’s information handling

tasks cannot be effectively and efficiently done manually without the use of information

technology. The impact of information technology on job productivity of lawyers has not

been sufficiently focused upon by government and institutions providing services to the

people. The complexity of the law profession naturally demands maximum information

technology utilization for appropriate and effective professional practice. There have been

persistent expressions by lawyers on use of information technology resources in the

managing their information. There are many avenues cutting across the spectrum of the entire

society, that are open to legal practitioners through which they can harness and process

information for effective legal

AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study is to design an application for the legal practitioner for managing their

information; the objectives of the study are as follows;

i. To increase the speed of operation in the legal chamber

ii. To ensure safety of information on cases

iii. To ensure easy retrieval of cases by ID

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Implementation of a crime information system by the Nigerian lawyers will help them and the
masses to get useful information on individuals with crime records. The system will be develop

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and a benefit for maintaining a database of all crime records in details, enable a quick search on
the database to retrieve crime information , enable lawyers to track previous crimes committed
by a suspect and make crime control easier for them.

1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The scope of this project will be focus mainly on the design and implementation of a
Criminal case search system using binary search algorithm that will cater for recording of
criminal data in chambers.

The limitations faced by this research project include financial constraints and
reluctance of the personnel in the police station. The project did not cover the
Prison and the Magistrate Segment, which could also be automated.

1.6 ORGANISATION OF THE REPORT

This is the overall organizational structure of the work as presented in this project
write-up.

Chapter one of this project deals with the introduction to the general work in the
project. It also entails the statement of the problem, aims and objectives of this project, the
significance of the study, the scope and limitation of the study and organization of the report.

Chapter two deals with the review related journals and books, historical background
of the study, as well as computerization current state of the art.
Chapter three covers the methods used for data collection, description of the current
procedure, problems of existing system, description of the proposed system and the basic
advantages of the proposed web based application.

Chapter four entails design, implementation and documentation of the system. The
design involves the system design, output design form, input design form, database structure
and the procedure of the system. The implementation involves the implementation techniques
used in details, choice of programming language used and the hardware and software support.
The documentation of the system involves the operation of the system and the maintenance of
the system.

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Chapter five deals with the summary, experience gained, conclusion, recommendation
and references.

4
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 REVIEW OF RELATED WORK

Lupo & Barley (2014) presented a journal title “Designing and Implementing e-Justice
Systems: Some Lessons Learned from EU and Canadian Examples” Access to justice has
become an important issue in many justice systems around the world. Increasingly,
technology is seen as a potential facilitator of access to justice, particularly in terms of
improving justice sector efficiency. The international diffusion of information systems (IS)
within the justice sector raises the important question of how to insure quality performance.
The IS literature has stressed a set of general design principles for the implementation of
complex information technology systems that have also been applied to these systems in the
justice sector. However, an emerging e-justice literature emphasizes the significance of
unique law and technology concerns that are especially relevant to implementing and
evaluating information technology systems in the justice sector specifically. Moreover, there
is growing recognition that both principles relating to the design of information technology
systems themselves (“system design principles”), as well as to designing and managing the
processes by which systems are created and implemented (“design management principles”)
can be critical to positive outcomes. This paper uses six e-justice system examples to
illustrate and elaborate upon the system design and design management principles in a
manner intended to assist an interdisciplinary legal audience to better understand how these
principles might impact upon a system’s ability to improve access to justice: three European
examples (Italian Trial Online; English and Welsh Money Claim Online; the trans-border
European Union e-CODEX) and three Canadian examples (Ontario’s Integrated Justice
Project (IJP), Ontario’s Court Information Management System (CIMS), and British
Columbia’s eCourt project (Lupo & Barley, 2014).
According to Trudy (2015) presents a journal on “Temporary Courts, Permanent Records”
Temporary international criminal courts create voluminous records of lasting importance.
This study examines the records of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), the
Special Panels and Serious Crimes Unit in East Timor, and the internationalized courts and
prosecutors in Kosovo. A survey of the five courts reveals substantial differences among
them because of the varied roles played by the United Nations in their establishment and

5
operations, which in turn leads to differences in the potential disposition of their records. The
study argues that the pending closure of these courts makes a decision on the disposition of
their records urgent. Basic access procedures need to be established, active preservation
measures need to be undertaken, description and duplication of the records should begin, and
the United Nations should explore constructing and staffing an international judicial archives
for court records (Trudy 2015).
Deshmukh, Arun, Tushar, Ajinkya , Rahul & Chaitali, (2015) write and presented a journal
titled “Crime Investigation using Data Mining”, Crime rate is increasing very fast in India
because of increase in poverty and unemployment. With the existing crime investigation
techniques, officers have to spend a lot of time as well as man power to identify suspects and
criminals. However crime investigation process needs to be faster and efficient. As large
amount of information is collected during crime investigation, data mining is an approach
which can be useful in this perspective. Data mining is a process that extracts useful
information from large amount of crime data so that possible suspects of the crime can be
identified efficiently. Numbers of data mining techniques are available. Use of particular data
mining technique has greater influence on the results obtained. So the performance of three
data mining techniques { J48, Nave Bayes and JRip will be compared against sample crime
and criminal database and best performing algorithm will be used against sample crime and
criminal database to identify possible suspects of the crime. Data mining is a process of
extracting knowledge from huge amount of data stored in databases, data warehouses and
data repositories. Clustering is the process of combining data objects into groups. The data
objects within the group are very similar and very dissimilar as well when compared to
objects of other groups (Deshmukh, Arun, Tushar, Ajinkya , Rahul & Chaitali, 2015).

IBM Software Group, (2010) also presented a paper on “Crime prediction and prevention
”,like all government organizations, law enforcement agencies now need to do more with
less. Managing under tighter policing budgets as government revenues shrink, they must
continue to improve public safety and respond to stronger calls for transparency and
accountability in all policing actions. With budgets cuts pressuring law enforcement agencies
to fight crime using fewer resources, the use of analytics to both respond to and ward off
crime is now more critical than ever. Crime prediction and prevention analytics from IBM
helps agencies make the best use of the people and information at hand to monitor, measure
and predict crime and crime trends. Analysis of police data provides insight that lets officers

6
track criminal activities, predict the likelihood of incidents, effectively deploy resources and
solve cases faster.

Aakash, Gautami, Omkar, & Varsha, (2017) presented a paper on “Criminal Investigation
Tracker with Suspect Prediction”, whenever a case against the crime is filed the investigation
always starts from the scratch right away from the evidences found at the crime location and
the eye witnesses present at the crime location. On the basis of the statement given by the eye
witnesses about the crime and the criminal who committed that crime. The process of the
investigations starts. As to reduce the stress of the police officers we implemented a system
as criminal investigation tracker with suspect prediction that will help the officers to speed up
the process of investigation and track status of ongoing case by predicting out the primary
suspects on the basis of the records which consists of compendium of the people associated to
the case, former criminal background proofs recovered from crime location, etc. This
digitized system makes the work easy for an officer to check the status of the case online and
even allows him to add up the new important information related to the case as it’s when
needed. The proposed system consists of suspect prediction algorithm to predict and suggest
the suspects in the logical order (Aakash, Gautami, Omkar, & Varsha, 2017).
Adeyinka, Ndako, & Faith, (2013) also present a journal titled” Design and Implementation

of Crime Investigation System using Biometric ”, reliable criminal suspects’ recognition is an

important problem in crime investigation process. Biometrics recognition is becoming an

irreplaceable part of many identification systems. While successful in some niche markets,

the biometrics technology has not yet delivered its promise of full proof automatic crime

suspects’ recognition, especially in a developing country like Nigeria. The study proposes

and implements a biometrics based crime investigation system for the Nigerian Police Force.

The software was designed using Visual BASIC programming language (Adeyinka, Ndako,

& Faith, 2013).

2.2 REVIEW OF GENERAL TEXT

Crime record tracking system is a system that involves ways by which computer can

be used to track criminal record. The records composed of registers such as case register,

7
warrant of arrest register. The relationship among these registers are important and so they

are transferred into general record (here after called crime record) for further simplification

and clarification. The crime records are prepared and updated frequently as needed by the

security agent (i.e police).

Wherever, a crime is committed and police arrest the offender, after passing through

the stages of investigation the divisional crime after (DCO) with the investigation police

officer (IPO) lead the case to the court and after (5) five years the files will be burn and (7)

seven years for major attences i.e This file will be in exhibit keeper for this period of time.

If the system can be computerized, it will help in following area:

 Large storage capacity to store high volume of data

 Possible to stored information for long time bases

Retrieving of long time bases will be possible for investigation to further uses

2.3 CRIME

Crime and criminals are subjects of discussion of endless formation. Crime has been
in existence in the society for ages. It has existed since Cain killed Abel. After God sent
Adam and Eve out of the Eden, this can be regarded as the first established crime. It was also
known in the olden days that the Romans manufactured fake coins. Crime like robberies,
rape, murder, theft etc. were usually reported in the ancient Greek and were commonly
associated with violence borne out of anger, lost and greed.

Crime occurs almost daily as part of mass media entertainment like news
presentations and commentaries in local newspapers, we are also conscious of the fear of
crime, and device means of locking our homes and automobiles to protect our lives. Despite
all these, a lot of us are often involved in crime or as victims of criminals (Charles Mysers,
2011).

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2.3.1 DEFINITION OF CRIMES

Crime reflects a range of phenomena that have been subject to the interpretation of
specialist from numerous fields or disciplines.

Crime, as defined by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is an “offence for

which one may be punished by the law”. An offence is thus described by the same dictionary
as the “breaking of a rule or law” or “illegal act”. By the dictionary meaning of crime, it will
not be out of place to say that it is a breach of the norms of the society for which one is liable
to punishment under the laws of the land.

Crime, when drawn from natural law which is referred to as a body of principles and
rules that are believed to be uniquely flattery and binding upon any community of rational
beings. Any violation of these rules and principles was deemed to be criminal. Any natural
law comes from a source higher than man, and it is higher law understand to be binding even
in the absence of manmade.

Legally, crime is defined as “Acts or omissions which render the person doing the act
or making the omissions liable to punishment under the book”.

Thus, it is generally accepted that a crime is an act which breaks the criminal law. In
addition to breaking the criminal law, a crime can be followed by criminal proceedings,
including punishment. But not all crime does actually result in police action and prosecution.

2.3.2 CLASSIFICATION OF CRIME

Generally, crime can be classified in different ways. Some classifications are made
merely for convenience sake while others are in-line with the legal system of a country.

In Nigeria, crimes have a statutory classification as can be found under section 3 of

the criminal code as FELONY, MISDEMEANOUR and SIMPLE OFFENCES. This is being
referred to as the three-fold classification of offence. It is the classification adopted in
substantive criminal law and made in the criminal code. The criminal code under the section
referred to above define these divisions as follows:

(a) FELONY: A felony is an offence which is declared by law to be a felony, or is

punishable, without proof of previous conviction, with death or with imprisonment for
three years or more.

9
(b) MISDEMEANOUR: A misdemeanor is an offence which is declared by law to be a
misdemeanor or is punishable by imprisonment for not less than six months, but less
than three years.
(c) SIMPLE OFFENCES: All offences other than felonies, misdemeanors as simple
offences.
The statutory classification of crime as above not withstanding a count may go ahead
to give little as no punishment for a felonious crime in his discretion. When this is done, it
does not alter the fact that the offence in itself is a felony and the consequences which attend
on a felony. Largely, the effect of the classification boarders on procedures as, for example,
granting of bail to an accused person is restricted when the crime committed is felony.

2.3.3 THE MOTIVATION FOR CRIME

Why do people commit crime? What makes an individual take the risk of losing job
and social standing, not to mention of prosecution and imprisonment, for short term and often
minimal gain? We all have our price, so to speak, no matter how honest and trustworthy we
like to think we are, and we can all come under pressure to follow courses of action we would
not normally consider. Given the “big chance”, quite often on the spur of the moment, we
could all be tempted into dishonesty. Faced with black mail, we could be forced into actions
against our will.

Law morale is often a big factor, lack of pride and self esteem, or poor promotion
prospects, make it seem more justifiable to deceive an employer, especially if the individual
feels that he or she is not receiving adequate acknowledgement or remuneration.

Poor pay attracts poor standards in workforce, especially if that pay compares badly
with the professional norm. What has been variously described as “the tone at the top”, and
the “mind set of management”, is very important. A company which sets high standards of
corporate conduct, and which provides good working conditions and interesting jobs, will
evolve a more honest workforce, but an inefficient and dishonest management cannot really
complain, if its staff adopts those same low standards.

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 CHAPTER THREE

3.0 METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEM

3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Method of data collection is the practices and techniques in research used to gather,
process, and manipulate information that can be used to test ideas and theories about social
life. Types of methodologies include interview, textbooks and internet research. The main
type of method employed in this system is observation on the ways in which message is been
sent and not known may be it delivered or not. The method is achieved through the following
steps:

i. An application for the legal practitioner for managing their information is proposed.
ii. Application to ensure safety of information on cases was developed.
iii. An application to increase the speed of operation in the legal chamber was proposed.
iv. An application to ensure easy retrieval of cases by ID was developed.
v. The choice of programming language used in the development of the software are

listed below: C#, PHP, MySQL, Wamp version 5.0(server-side). The proposed

system has 5 modules working hand in hand for the efficiency of this systems, the

module are

i. Splash Screen: this give details the

ii. Login Module: this give authorized user access to the system for use.
iii. Case Recording Module: this module allow user to add information about bus
location as well as drivers details.
iv. Complain Module: this module allow user to make complain about a particular
crime to the chambers.
v. Report: this module allow user display all record of registered criminal.
vi. Search Record: this module allow user to search record of criminal using their ID

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 Splash Screen

Main Menu

Login

Case Recording Complain Report Search Record

Program Flow

PROPOSED SYSTEM PROCESS DESCRIPTION

This highlights in detail the processing steps which convert input into output. The processing
tasks to be carried out by the Investigation System are basically the entering of criminal
details into the database file, retrieval of criminal suspects’ personal information based on a
specified criterion. To enter a criminals’ detail into the database file, the user have to enter
basic information about the criminal, upload passport, and submit to the database file by
saving changes. To retrieve a criminals’ detail, the user will have to enter a specific search
criteria and click on search, the system then searches through the database file for a record
that matches the given criteria. If a match is found, the record is then displayed. Otherwise,
the system should display a message saying such record does not exist. To retrieve all
existing criminal details in the database, the user should click on the “Full Records” button,
the system the retrieves the records of all existing criminal. To access the full detail of a
criminal as well as all information about the crimes committed, user will then click on any
part of the retrieved criminal detail and click on open records. The system then displays the
full record of that particular criminal.
3.2 ANALYSIS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM

Before the introduction and the application of computers in criminal records, crime
investigation, and detection, most criminal records or other criminal related activities was
carried out using the manual or traditional approach in the process of data processing, which
involves the use of paper files, manual skills and human brain work.

12
The traditional approach of crime investigation is usually time-consuming, resulting in a lot
of delay and often generally inefficient leading to high cost.

3.3 PROBLEMS OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM

Due to the manual means being used by the Lawyers, in keeping information
about crime and entering records of it into record books instead of it being in form
of data input into computer storage system, problems arise and there problems
have plagued the lawyers and affected the policing system in the country. Some of
these problems are enumerated below.

a) Insufficient Equipment
Almost all chamber units in the country lack equipment such as computer
system. If these systems are provided, there will be good report generated,
communication links among different chamber units (when networked) and
this in-turn will enhance decision Making and ultimately facilitate the
fighting of crime because good and valuable information yield‘s good
results.
(b) Keeping Of Record Books For Different Cases That Come In Daily.
This presents a lot of problems to the policing system because the record books
are always voluminous and in trying to keep all these, some vital information
might be lot. This also makes the office look very clumsy and untidy since most
files are covered with dust.

(c) Loss Of Important Information

Due to damages that occur on record book and file, when pages are lost, some
vital information is also lost.
(d) Inaccuracy -Due to the manual method of handling information a lot
of human error are noticed in processed information.

(e) Time lapses

Due to the manual method, there is always a slow response- time when the law court
requires information about particular cases.

(f) Insecurity

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There can be no proper security of information.

3.4 ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM

On the other hand, the use of computers in the management of criminal records and crime
investigation tends to be very efficient due to the fact that less time is spent on the
investigation of crimes since it is automated; giving accurate and reliable criminal
investigation results. With the introduction of technology which is an advanced computer
techniques now widely adopted as a front line security measure for crime record keeping, and
also offers an effective crime deterrent. It is also a process that is accepted globally in
establishing forensic evidence in a law court. It cannot be over emphasized that there is need
to provide for adequate, efficient and effective technological knowhow especially in the area
of crime investigation which will make their job simpler and faster, as well as prompt and
effective in their service delivery.

3.5 ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW SYSTEM OVER THE EXISTING SYSTEM

A successful implementation of the Criminal Case Search System will greatly increase the
efficiency of the lawyer and will help to ensure that criminal records are managed properly
monitoring of criminal suspects in the country. It will as well ensure the following:

i. Reduction of redundancies and inconsistencies.

ii. Ensure user defined rules to ensure the integrity of data.
iii. Enables data sharing across all applications.
iv. Ensures data access authorization.
v. Has an automatic intelligent backup and recovery procedure of data.
vi. Integrity can be improved.
Thus, the problem of delay in retrieving criminal suspects records for reference purposes and
for appropriate court action or prosecution to be taken can be reduced drastically and the
efficiency in the management of criminal records and investigation of criminal case being
rendered by the Nigerian Police Force will greatly be improved upon.

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 CHAPTER FOUR
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM
4.1 DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM

For a design to have good feedbacks, the need for database at the back end of the
design is a requirement that must be in place. Design is the development phase for any
engineered product or system. it is a creative process of making an interactive design to
develop an effective system through proper evaluation and optimization of the design.
Design is the process of applying various techniques and principles for the purpose of
defining a process or a system in sufficient detail to permit its physical realization.
Software design sits at the technical kernel of the software engineering process which
is applied regardless of the development paradigm that is used to satisfy users need. System
design goes through two phases of development: Logical and Physical Design and the
conceptual design of the database.
The logical design of a system describes the content in the physical database while
the physical database itself is the entire database design of a system.
The conceptual view is an intermediary between the logical and the physical
database.
4.1.1 OUTPUT DESIGN

A quality output meets the requirements of the end user and presents the information clearly.

It is used to determine how the information is to be displaced for immediate need and also the hard

copy of the output in the design which serves as the direct source information to the end user.

Efficient and intelligent output design improves the system’s relationship to help end user in decision-

making. Below are the sampled output diagram:

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Figure 4.1: Snapshot of Main Menu

Figure 4.2: Snapshot of Crime Report

Figure 4.3: Snapshot of Record Search Module

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4.1.2 INPUT DESIGN

Input design focuses on controlling the amount of input required, controlling the errors, avoiding

delay, avoiding extra steps and keeping the process simple. The inputs manage information that is

needed for the development of the online tutor. it provides ease of use with retaining the privacy.

Diagram of the inputs design is as follows:

Figure 4.4: Snapshot of Login Module

Figure 4.5: Snapshot of New Record Module

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Figure 4.5: Snapshot of Crime Report Module

4.1.3 DATABASE DESIGN

Database Design is the collection or related data in an organized mechanism that has the

capability of storing information. End-user can retrieve stored information in an effective and

efficient manner which has the means of protecting them.

In an Automated Security Lock System, data are handled using WAMP server as the server-

side for the design. The database design is structure using Mysql and PHP linking codes.

Below is the database design of the system:

Figure 4.7: Snapshot of Registration Table Structure

Figure 4.9: Snapshot of Immunization Table structure

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4.2 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

This system is a system used to report on design and implementation of a

Computerized Immunization Information System. This project is done using C# (Clients-

Side) and MYSQL, Wamp Server(Server-side) as back end.

4.2.1 CHOICE OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

The choice of programming language used in the development of the software are

listed below:

1. C#

2. PHP

3. MySQL

4. Wamp version 5.0(server-side)

4.2.2 HARDWARE SUPPORT

The requirement for the implementation of this proposed system are the following

1. Computer system must have at least 1.7 MhZ speed for the processor.

2. 125-512 RAM

3. At least 100GB and above hard disc or hard drive

4. At least Pentium III and above board configuration.

4.2.3 SOFTWARE SUPPORT

The software support for this proposed system include training of staffs and users in

order to allow different users to accessed the proposed system.

But to achieved the aims and objectives of the study there must be a Strong AVG

antivirus to protect against virus attack e.t.c.

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4.2.4 IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUES USED IN DETAILED

The implementation techniques used in the detailed record of the project is with the

used of parallel approach techniques which allow the existing and the proposed system to

work together concurrently.

4.3 SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION

4.3.1 PROGRAM DOCUMENTATION

Program documentation includes:

1. Installing Wamp server to allow easy communication of the proposed system.

2. Installing C# application

3. Open C# and implement the program

4. Open wamp server local host to implement the database

5. Locate the project by Browsing through the projects using the Local Host

4.3.2 OPERATING THE SYSTEM

Before this project work can be use if reqiures the user to be oriented by the

programmer, therefore will enable the user to be familiar with the modules contains in the

program and the function of each modules are expected to be explained in details by the

programmer. Before the running of the program it has to be install on a PC and launched by

the user, then continue all orientated modules.

4.3.3 MAINTAINING THE SYSTEM

Maintenance is any activities carried out after the implementation of the new system

to make sure that the system is correctly and constant running. This can be any of the

following types of maintenance.

(a) Corrective maintenance: This is done to correct and defect that discover in the

course of using the new system to keep the system in tune with day to day function.

(b) Adaptive maintenance: This is done to make sure that the system is not obsolete

and adapt to any new systems of technology.

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(c) Preventive Maintenance: This is a kind of maintenance adopted for continuous

improvement in new system without waiting for the failure to occur or for the user to

change. This is adopted to prevent the occurrence of failure.

21
 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 SUMMARY
Based on the findings of this study, it is clear that availability and utilization of information
technology resources in the law firms are central to lawyer’s productivity. However the
implications are that lawyers should be encouraged to use Information Technology resources.
This can be done by increasing funding to existing law firms and providing more IT materials
in legal establishments such as courts, law schools etc. The study reveals the practitioners’
ability to acquire and utilize relevant, precise and timely IT resources as a contributing factor
to professional productivity. The findings serve as an empirical evidence to justify
assumption that professional productivity of legal practitioners will no doubt be improved if
they utilize relevant and up-to-date IT resources. The study highlights the dependence of
legal practice on utilization of IT resources. During the field work, interview with a few
lawyers revealed that lawyers with relevant IT resources seemed to perform well. By
inference, lawyers who used IT are more effective and efficient in their profession than those
who do not.

5.2 CONCLUSION
This research investigated the adoption and use of IT in the law offices in Nigeria, is still at
its infancy. From the foregoing, it can be concluded that making IT resources available is a
step forward in making legal practice an interesting and enjoyable exercise for law and
administration of justice in Nigeria. However, when the available IT resources are utilized to
the maximum, to provide quality services in law offices, there is no question that the primary
people, the clients and the society will not be happy. It can also be concluded that when legal
practitioners have IT resources to work with it would lead to faster and speedier court
processes resulting to efficient and effective administration of justice.

5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
This study would proffer the following recommendations:

The legal educational system should play a key role in enabling lawyers to appreciate the
importance of IT. To put this in place, faculties of law of each university in the country

22
should offer courses in IT, and fit in computer related subjects into the curriculum of legal
education.

As the world has become a global village through the use of IT, making IT available and
using the IT for the benefit of speedy administration of justice in the country, it is
recommended that adequate and current legal materials in non print formats should be
acquired to enhance effective and efficient legal practice in Nigeria.

Lawyers are always in need of updating their knowledge and professional skills. Therefore,
the paradox is that legal practitioners need computerized library system that is up-to-date and
well equipped to enhance effective and efficient legal practice. Such progressive measures
will assist the country in developing a powerful working culture culminating into the
advancement of the ideals of development and administration of justice in the country.

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