Data Collection and Court Management Jaša Vrabec, LL.M. Office for Court Management Development Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia Ministry of Justice, Amman, Jordan 6th of December 2014

STRUCTURE OF THE PRESENTATION Some facts about the Republic of Slovenia The Slovenian judicial system Informatization Data collection Court management

SLOVENIA

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA Population: 2.054.045 Area: 20.273 sq km Borders: Austria, Italy, Croatia, Hungary Capital: Ljubljana (345.350) Official language(s): Slovene, also Italian and Hungarian in nationally mixed areas GDP per capita in 2013: 17.550 EUR (cca. 85% of EU 28)

SOME FACTS ABOUT THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA June 1991 – Slovenia officially declares its independence January 1992 – the EU officially recognizes Slovenia May 1992 – Slovenia becomes a member of the UN May 2004 – Slovenia becomes a member of the EU January 2007 – the EURO becomes the official currency

SLOVENIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM SUPREME COURT HIGHER COURTS - 4 ADMINISTRATIVE HIGHER LABOUR AND SOCIAL DISTRICT COURTS - 11 LOCAL COURTS - 44 LABOUR AND SOCIAL

SLOVENIAN JUDICIAL DISTRICTS Murska Sobota Slovenj Gradec Maribor Ptuj Kranj Celje Ljubljana Krško Nova Gorica Novo mesto Koper

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COURTS Local Court of Ljubljana: 111 judges and 424 court staff in 2013 (secretary, senior judicial advisers, other staff)‏ Local Court of Cerknica, Idrija, Lenart, Litija or Tolmin: 2 or 3 judges and from 11 to 15 court staff in 2013

AVERAGE TIME FOR SOLVING CASES AND THE NUMBER OF UNRESOLVED CASES ALL CASES WITHOUT MINOR OFFENCES

STRUCTURE OF RESOLVED CASES

STRUCTURE OF UNRESOLVED CASES

INFORMATIZATION Electronic procedures: Land register (ZK) Court register - companies (SRg) Inslovency procedures (INS) Enforcement on the basis of authentic documents (COVL)

AVERAGE TIME FOR SOLVING CASES AND THE NUMBER OF UNRESOLVED CASES LANDREGISTER CASES

AVERAGE TIME FOR SOLVING CASES AND THE NUMBER OF UNRESOLVED CASES ENFORCEMENT CASES

DATA COLLECTION Before 2008 data collection had the following characteristics: Court registers were managed and filled manually Court registers were managed for individual types of procedures and not on the level of the court as a whole The time interval was set at every three months (each quarter) The data collected was only basic (new, solved and unresolved cases, start and end of procedure).

DATA COLLECTION - EVOLUTION After the Data Warehouse was built data are collected Electronically Centrally Automatically Up-to-date information Time effective Disburdened human resources Better quality and reliability of data (Clearance rate, Disposition time, Age of pending caseload, Efficieny rate, Judge productivity, Personnel productivity, etc.) Variety of possible inquiries – reports on demand Better visualisation

THE DATA WAREHOUSE PROJECT The main goal of the project is to improve decision making. The goals and effects are the following: To shorten the decision making time and eliminate backlogs To have a better overview over the work of courts and allow benchmarking between courts To provide for a more efficient resolution of old cases To allow effective planning and equalisation of human resources in different courts To rationalise the costs To disburden judges of the preparation of statistical analysis.

PRESIDENT’S DASHBOARDS The Supreme Court of Slovenia has developed and implemented a new integrated approach to court management by combining business- intelligence technology and managerial know-how. In 2011, five dashboards named President's Performance Dashboards were developed as a data visualisation tool. Each dashboard is a visual display of the most important information. The President’s Performance Dashboard project was one of the three finalists of the CEPEJ and EU Commission Crystal Scales of Justice Competition in 2012.

HUMAN RESOURCES

SOLVING CASES

BACKLOGS

EFFICIENCY

TYPES OF CASE SOLUTION

PRIORITY AREAS The Supreme Court has prepared 5 priority areas that the Slovenian judiciary focused on in 2014: Clearance of cases within the prescribed timeframes Solving of oldest unresolved cases Monitoring of judicial procedures Disburdening the judges Quality

COURT MANAGEMENT Support of the top level management Culture of court management Use of information tools - transparency of work Objective criteria on the work of courts Strategic management

COURT MANAGEMENT Strategic management - Overview of the work of courts Distribution of human resources Efficiency Oldest unresolved cases Type of case solution Procedural phases Regular visits of the President of the Supreme Court Creation of time standards Creation of specific programmes - Triage

DISTRIBUTION OF HUMAN RESOURCES

EFFICIENCY

OLDEST UNRESOLVED CASES

PROCEDURAL PHASES

RESULTS From 2008 to October 2014: Pending cases were reduced by 45% Overall average time for solving cases fell by more than 3 months (from 7.0 to 3.3) The increase in transparency allows more accurate information to the general public and helps improving the public confidence in the judicial system.

Thank you for your attention. Further information: jasa.vrabec@sodisce.si