13 January, 2023
On Friday, January 13, the Judicial Council approved the work priorities for 2023, which envisage strengthening the status of the Judicial Council, improving the system of professional evaluation and remuneration of court employees, as well as promoting the efficiency of court work.
The work priorities of the Judicial Council for 2023 envisage, first of all, promoting the fiscal independence of the courts as a constitutional body and strengthening the status and functions of the Judicial Council. This also means taking over the court administration functions from the executive branch and developing the administrative capacity of the Judicial Council accordingly. Secondly, it is planned to develop a competitive remuneration system for court employees, as well as a uniform evaluation methodology for court employees and a remuneration system linked to it. Thirdly, it is needed to strengthen the efficiency of judicial work by optimizing the internal resources of the judicial system.
At the Judicial Council meeting, the Court Administration also reported on the implementation progress of the ‘case weighting’ model and the results of the pilot project. The Court Administration will continue work on the improvement of the ‘case weighting’ model, and will also prepare an assessment of the necessary resources for the integration of the model into the Court Information System.
Moreover, the Judicial Council took note of the action plan presented by the Court Administration for improving the operation of the e-case management system. Director of Court Administration, Andris Munda, stated that one of the court employees will be trained in each Latvian court to be able to provide support in the use of information and communication technology tools.
The Judicial Council took note of the report prepared by the Working Group on Strengthening the Efficiency of the Courts on the further development of the institution of judge assistants. In the opinion of the Working Group, it is necessary to restore the qualification requirement for a judge assistant, namely the higher education in law, and the profession of a judge assistant must be subject to the standard of the legal profession, while making changes in the job description. Moreover, the annual evaluation system of judge assistants should be reformed, focusing on the legal qualification of an employee. In the opinion of the Working Group, amendments to the law On Judicial Power should be developed, reducing the length of work experience as a judge assistant and as an assistant to court chairperson required for candidates for the position of district (city) court judge from five to three years.