16.01.2012
We, the judges must be more active and initiative in the process of drafting the legal frame for our work because many of our problems derive from the poor and vague legal framework. This is the opinion of Judge Ekaterina Nikolova, Chair of the Blagoevgrad Regional Court, expressed in an interview for the PDJS website. In her opinion, greater initiative from the judges is needed in cases of detecting contradictory case law from different courts on similar types of cases. Resolving the same litigations in different ways has a very negative effect on the public confidence in the courts work and the system as a whole.
Like many of her colleagues, Nikolova expresses solidarity with the opinion of the Union of Judges in Bulgaria on the issue of constitutional amendments. I truly believe that a constitutional amendment on the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) model and structure, the most important body of the judicial system, is needed - she said. To be effective in its activities, the SJC should consist of magistrates who are familiar with the nature of their colleagues’ work, in order to be able to objectively assess their professional qualities or, respectively, the lack of such, during transparent competitions with clear procedural rules. On the other hand, the SJC members must have the confidence of the magistrates in the system and impeccable reputation in their professional circles.
According to Ekaterina Nikolova, the answer to public criticism towards the courts work is optimisation of the quality and speed in administration of cases, ensuring openness and transparency in judicial work, facilitating access to legal information and isolating factors that according to the public foster corruption and conflicts of interests in the courts. The measures proposed in the Enhancing Court Business Practices Project can provide a significant degree of success in achieving those results. Also, cooperation between courts in these efforts and the exchange of ideas and good practices – the core ideas behind the project – are crucial.
Since 2000 the Blagoevgrad Regional Court works with the Judicial Strengthening Initiative (JSI) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and now with the successor of its efforts – the PDJS. This partnership has led to very good results and contributed greatly to the development and modernisation of our court, said Nikolova. It is a pioneer in introducing the Automated Case Management System (ACMS) and the first to create electronic folders of all cases whose administration can be done entirely electronically. Years later, the SJC recommended that all courts in Bulgaria should introduce a case managements system. Subsequently, we implemented the revolutionary for its time system for electronic exchange of information between the Regional and the District courts in Blagoevgrad. In 2004 we set up the e-exchange of files via the ACMS with the Blagoevgrad Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The successful partnership with the PDJS until 2005 and the new standards set out in the CIP 2, which builds upon the positive results from the CIP 1, motivated Blagoevgrad Regional Court to participate in the current project. According to Nikolova, the possibilities of continuous communication and exchange of good practices with other courts in the country and the exchange of international experience are extremely useful and valuable features of the cooperation with the PDJS. They serve as an excellent basis for cooperation between the Bulgarian courts and the unification of practices in any given area.
Since the fall of 2011 all courts in the Blagoevgrad judicial district (Blagoevgrad District Court, Blagoevgrad Regional Court, Gotse Delchev Regional Court, Petrich Regional Court and Sandanski Regional Court) started testing a pilot local version of the future Unified Web Portal for Remote Access to Complete Information on Court Cases on the web site: https://ecase.bg/. The main idea is that every lawyer who is a representative of a party in a court case can make inquiries in the electronic records of the respective case in real time from any work station with internet access. Such an option is available and for the parties themselves. The web portal allows users to make uncertified copies of the judicial acts free of charge. It also provides access to specific archived cases and to all legal papers and documents attached to the electronic case files i.e.-complete information and electronic analogue of each paper case file. In addition to this unified portal, a Module for Electronic Messaging and Electronic Subpoenas is in development. It will allow automatic forwarding of court papers to the parties immediately after they are generated in the case management system. The pilot version of the portal will be tested for a period of time. A public presentation of the product and results from its implementation will be then organised for all colleagues and courts who are interested, as well as the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Judicial Council. If the anticipated benefits of this product are confirmed, one day all courts in the country can benefit from it and provide free of charge remote access to electronic analogues of their case files to all parties and their legal representatives, as well as the option of making free uncertified copies of court documents. According to Nikolova, achieving this goal is one very important step in the modernisation and development of the courts in our country, comparable with the first introduction of electronic management and administration of court cases that replaced manual labour of judges and court staff in this field.
