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Enhancing Court Performance: Measuring Quantitative Indicators

Explore the framework and measures used to assess the performance of courts in Lisbon, focusing on judicial independence, quality decisions, timeliness, and accountability.

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Enhancing Court Performance: Measuring Quantitative Indicators

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  1. Measuring quantitative indicators Courts performance LISBON, May 2018

  2. Framework The rule of law in a democracy requires not only judicial independence but also the establishment of competent courts rendering judicial decisions of the highest possible quality within a reasonable time Opinion n.º 17 (2014) of Consultative Council of European Judges Thisistheframeworkof judicial (judgeand courts) performance system

  3. Framework Portugal has a very ancient experience on judges’ assessment • Nevertheless, the judicial reforms of the XXI century challenged us to go deep on reflexion and practice about the system: the new Inspectorate rules of 2017 are an example of this maintaining the traditional principles: • Equality • Impartiality • Fairness • Timeliness • Independence • Legality Andstressing a newone: • Continuous assessment of the whole courts’ process tracking focused on citizens and on results

  4. Framework Firmly determined to accomplish is task of ensuring the independence of courts, the High Council stresses is attributions related to the performance of courts and not only of judges • Aiming to contribute to improve the quality of the system of justice, mostly efficiency, effectiveness and streamlining procedures’ practices, administration and management • Article 2 of Portuguese Rule

  5. Framework Accountability is both a continualandanessentialgoal, entirelyrespectfulofjudges’ independence. For that, The Inspectorate ought by no means to interfere with the independence of the Judges, concerning the substantive merits of their judgments and decisions

  6. CITIUS The IT systemof Portuguese Courts is in factanongoingsystembuiltby court clercks to facilitatetheirwork In 2008 itwasadapted to judges’ intervention in civil cases Since 2017, thatsystemwasextended to all cases, althoughwith some restrictions in criminal andchildren cases Thatsystemenablesthecitizens, whenrepresentedbylawyers, to applytheirpetitions to court as you can seebythevideobelow:

  7. CITIUS When a file islodgedwiththe court itisclassifiedaccording to itsmatterandcomplexity Afterwards, cases are randomlyassigned to eachJudge bymeansofaneletronictool to prevent interference and enhances transparency

  8. CITIUS This is anexampleofwhatisseen in clerksapplication:

  9. CITIUS Afterassignmentthe files becameavailable to theunitofproceedings, responsible for them:

  10. CITIUS Theclerkpresentstheproceedings to thejudge

  11. CITIUS • Judgesapplicationreports: • thenumberoffiles • thetypeofdecisionpossiblyrequired • thedayofpresentation for decision

  12. CITIUS Afterdecisionthe case returns to theclerck Theclerksapplicationprovides data ontimeliness as well

  13. CITIUS • Thedecision can besentelectronically to lawyers

  14. Justice Statistics

  15. Justice Statistics http://www.siej.dgpj.mj.pt/webeis/index.jsp?username=Publico&pgmWindowName=pgmWindow_636622556206747500 Justice Statistics

  16. Justice Statistics http://www.siej.dgpj.mj.pt/webeis/index.jsp?username=Publico&pgmWindowName=pgmWindow_636622556206747500

  17. Justice Statistics http://www.siej.dgpj.mj.pt/webeis/index.jsp?username=Publico&pgmWindowName=pgmWindow_636622556206747500

  18. Council’smonitoring It is relevant to stress the organizational dimension of performance and therefore to improve the general accountability of courts and of judges within the Courts The recent changing of our Rules and Proceedings of Assessment, in order to build a more appropriate system that involves court presidents and inspectors, has that major objective For this purpose, the High Council continually monitories the activity of Courts, receives statistical data each four months and promotes reunions between court presidents, inspectors and judges, to analyse the problems and to draft the solutions

  19. Council’smonitoring Monitoring courts workload for management purposesimpliesthecollectionofcourt’sworkload data NowadaystheCouncil uses anapplicationdevelopedbyitsown IT department Although data are provided for CITIUS, itisnotyetpossible to receivethemdirectly For that a hugeworkofthecourt’spresidenciesisneedeed to introduce data in Council’sapplication

  20. Council’smonitoring

  21. Council’smonitoring

  22. Council’smonitoring

  23. Council’smonitoring

  24. Council’smonitoring

  25. Council’smonitoring

  26. Council’smonitoring

  27. Council’smonitoring

  28. Council’smonitoring

  29. Council’smonitoring • However, we have already fixed the qualitative criteria allowing the gathering of data with previous consultation of all judges. • Thefollowingcriteriawereestablished: • The core cases in eachjurisdiction • Thepercentageadequate to theremainingcaseload • Thedifferentcategoriesof courts

  30. Performance standards The definition of expected workload is a legal obligation of Judicial High Council • Those standards must take in accountthe effective workload of Courts during, at least, three years • Therefore, due to the 2014 judicial reform, theCouncilhadnowfinished to gatherthestatisticsresults The data werecollectedfrom CITIUS andcollectedfollowingthecriteriaabove

  31. Performance standards Resulting in a proposalthatisyet to beadoptedbytheCouncil

  32. Thankyousomuch for yourattention

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