Management and Promotion of on-line countrywide court fee franking system

Courts Service

The Courts Service wishes to put in place an arrangement for the supply and management of court fee franking machines to solicitors firms in the Republic of Ireland. The machines to be supplied should be state of the art, highly automated, with an online re-crediting facility. The selected service provider will be responsible for supplying and maintaining the machines and also collecting fees, on behalf of the Courts Service, paid by solicitors firms in respect of charges for stamping court documents. Franking machines used by solicitors firms must be kept in credit otherwise usage will not be allowed.
The Courts Service cannot guarantee any level of business under this arrangement, as it will be a matter for any solicitor firm wishing to avail of these new machines, to opt to avail of this arrangement. Furthermore future changes, for example the introduction of electronic filing, could impact on the medium to long term viability of this arrangement.
Under the present system some 20 000 000 EUR (twenty million euro) is collected annually in fees by the Courts Service, whereby about 200 solicitors’ practices operate fee franking machine. Each of these subscribers uses a franking machine for the stamping of court documents prior to their lodgement into court, with the subscribers required to attend at the offices of the Courts Service in order for their machines to be re-credited under a manual system with payment being made monthly in arrears.
The new contract which will extend over a period of 5 years together with an option for extension, will be categorised as a service concession contract, as the appointed service provider will assume the full risk of extending the system countrywide to law firms, of which there are currently some 2000 in Ireland.
Under the proposed new system the appointed service provider will be commissioned to promote the development of the prepayment service to solicitors’ practices countrywide. Participating practices will have their advance payments credited to their machines on-line by the service provider, who will in turn transfer the relevant funds to the Courts Service, together with the appropriate financial reports and management information.
As a service concession, this contract is expressly excluded from Directive 2004/18/EC, under Article 17 thereof. This notice is therefore published strictly on a voluntary basis. The award process will be structured such that negotiations leading to the award will be carried out in accordance with the general structure of a competitive dialogue procedure.
NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the eTenders Web Site at http://www.etenders.gov.ie/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=232132.

Deadline
The time limit for receipt of tenders was 2011-06-14. The procurement was published on 2011-05-18.

Suppliers
The following suppliers are mentioned in award decisions or other procurement documents:

• • Neopost Ireland Ltd

Who?

• • Courts Service

What?

• • Judicial services › Law-courts-related administrative services

Where?

• • Éire/Ireland › Ireland