Modernizing Court Systems with Electronic Case Management: Georgian Perspective

1. Electronic Case Management System – Georgian Experience Dr. KontantineKublashvili

2. km2 • Georgia • Territory: 70 000 km2 • Population: 4 000 000 • Capital: Tbilisi (1 200 000) • Another big cities: Kutaisi (195 000), Rustavi (160 000), Batumi (122 000)

3. Common Courts of Georgia – Criminal, Civil and Administrative Jurisdiction: • Supreme (cassation) Court • 2 Courts of Appeal • 25 District/city Courts • 40 Magistrate Courts • Total: 270 Judges, Cases heard per year – 65-70 000 (app.)

4. Judiciary Reform 2005-2015 • Considered as cornerstone of the democratic transformation • One of main goals of the Reform: • Creation of accessible, transparent, speedy and effective court system • For this purpose inter alia: • To equip court buildings with modern technologies, such as: • PCs for each Judge, Assistant and Secretary of Judge; • Establishing common network (intranet) for entire court system; • Audio Recording program in each courtroom; • Video connection among courts, enabling direct contact with any participants of the trial from any other place through video calls; • Electronic case management program for entire court system.

5. Electronic Case Management Software • Started working on the ECMS: in 2006 • Main actors in the process: • Supreme Court of Georgia • USAID funded organization – DPK • GIZ • Norlag • The first trial version of the software in Rustavi City Court: in 2010; • Making certain amendment in the software based on practical test in Rustavi; • Establishment of IBM Central Data Center covering the whole court system; • Launching the Electronic Case Management Software in the first instance courts (25 courts + 40 magistrates): in 2012 • Launching the ECMS in Courts of Appeal: in 2013 • Launching the ECMS in Supreme Court: in 2015

6. Login Page

7. Chancellery • Register Any Type Of Document

8. Generation of the Case – automatically granting unique number to the case • The number of the case is generated based on the following components: corresponding • Court, jurisdiction, date, etc.

9. The case is automatically addressed to the corresponding judge • The special law of Georgia about case distribution

10. The study of the case by the judge • Acquiring the whole information about the registered participants • Full accessibility on the case materials

11. All the information submitted to the system is automatically generated into the corresponding templates already existing in the software • One of the biggest achievements of the system isthat the technical part of case proceeding, which consumed70-80% of the judge’s labor, isprovided as atemplate in the software, and the judge only has towork for the intellectual part

12. Appointing the court hearing • Preparing the protocol and other documents of the hearing • Checking the free / available court room for the hearing • Checking the availability of the parties

13. Based on the information registered in the system, the special summons are generated for the parties of the case.

14. The possibility to save the drafted documents with a different status: non-final, final, another version. • The obligation automatically to hide the names of the participants in the final decision; • All the final decisions automatically receive the barcodes.

15. All the final decisions in the system are generated with non-identified form. • After the judge signs the final decision, in 24 hours, the decision in non- • identified form is uploaded to the public space on the web: info.court.ge

16. In the electronic software the interested person or agency can check any document with • its barcode.

17. The application filed to the court is directly registered in the special field of the software, where the date of filing is automatically inputted, special code is assigned, etc. Simultaneously, the case is linked to the web-page www.info.court.ge, which means that from the same day a citizen can any time use his password and control the progress of his case. • For those who hasn’t this software, there is a web space where he/she can observe the progress of • the case • The usage of this space is available only with the ID and password issued by the court at the case registration stage.

18. In an advance search, it is possible for any judge to find any final document with one or more component of the search • Any document has Read-only status

19. National Service of Court Case Registration www.icourt.ge • This is a web application which allows distance electronic communication with the different • instances of the court System, namely, submitting the claim, counterclaim and other documents and observing the process • - The authenticity of user is based on the data registered in advance and generated sms before entering in the system

20. www.icourt.ge • Through icourt.ge web page: • Outside user (attorney, commercial bank, companies and other) may submit to the court any document electronically • Pay a court fee • Take part electronically (sending and receiving documents related to the case) • Acquire any information related to the case

21. Outside user’s observation and participation in the process • Electronic submission of any forms to the courts • Keeping the filled forms as a templates

22. The full list of the court hearings scheduled • Control over the documents separately and collectively sent to the court or received from • the court

23. Calendar system • Personal notes • The hearings scheduled by the judge • Other important dates provided by the judge

24. საფოსტო კომპანიასთან ინტეგრაცია • Direct electronic communication with the post office to deliver the summons from the court • to another party • To receive electronic confirmation from the post office regarding the delivery of the summons

25. Integration With Prosecutor's Office Of Georgia • Automatic filling of the field – After the submission of the documents from the prosecutors, all the necessary information is filled automatically

26. The criminal case submitted by the prosecutors is automatically generated to the attorney if he is the user of the online application

27. All important information during the case hearing, such as date of the hearing, documents drafted, appealed and other, is automatically reflected to both parties – sender of the case and responding party (attorney and other) if they are users the electronic application. Lawyer Prosecutor

28. Drafting the judgement by the judge. All the necessary information other than • argumentation of the judgement is automatically displayed in the template

29. Appealing of the case – included in the templates • Submitting the case to any instance

30. Thank you For Attention 2015