24 April, 2015
The report of the European Commission “The 2015 EU Justice Scoreboard” is published, and one may to make sure – indices of Latvian court system are above average indices in the European Union. Latvian court system received particularly high evaluation on implementation of electronic tools in proceedings.
Information summarised in the latest, the third report “The EU Justice Scoreboard” purports on growth of Latvian court system in modernisation of courts. In previous report, the European Commission had already appreciated measures taken by Latvia within implementation of different electronic tools in proceedings. This year, significant growth is observed in this field, and Latvia takes its position among countries, in which information about court services, accessibility, jurisdiction and court rulings passed may be found on the Internet in full.
Latvia holds high position in respect of use of tools of information and communication technologies both for needs of courts and in communication with parties to cases. Opportunities to use video conferences in courts are ensured, and different e-services are available to parties to cases, for example, electronic blank and claims may be filed in electronic form. Latvia holds the fifth place in respect of processing of small claims. Latvia is ranged among leader states, which provide publishing of judgements on the Internet.
Latvia holds the eighth place in participation of judges in continuing education and is one of leader states, which provides communication trainings to judges to carry out communication with parties to cases and media more successfully.
Index of number of cases pending to 100 inhabitants in Latvia is sixth best. However, by means of terms of review of cases we are at average level of the European Union.
The lowest ratings of Latvia refer to use of extrajudicial mediation and budget of Latvian courts to number of inhabitants is the sixth lowest one.
Report of 2015 is the third consecutive edition, and it comprises analysis of progress of the Member States of the European Union achieved in issues related to efficiency of court system. The goal of summary of results of current year is to verify possible trends in three main fields: efficiency, quality and independence of court systems.
The report of the European Commission “The European Union Justice Scoreboard” is available here.