Strasbourg, 28 June 2017

CEPEJ-GT-EVAL(2017)10

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE (CEPEJ)

The purpose of this note is to provide assistance to those responsible for answering the questions in the Scheme.

1.                General remarks (alphabetical order)

Gross figures and full-time equivalent of posts:the posts in gross figures concerns the total number of persons working, independently of their working hours. The posts in full-time equivalent, on the other hand, aims at quantify the posts according to the effective attendance rate (taking as reference the full time).The indication of the full-time equivalent implies that the number of part time working persons has to be converted: for instance, one half-time worker should count for 0.5 of a full-time equivalent, two people working half the standard number of hours count for one "full-time equivalent".

Numbers: The indication of a numerical data should comply with strict rules. For example, the data 1000 (one thousand) should be provided 1000 without a blank (1 000), a point (1.000), a comma (1,000) or an apostrophe (1’000).

Sources: please indicate the sources of your data, if possible. The “source" concerns the institution which has provided the information to answer the question (e.g. the National Institute of the Statistics or the Ministry of Justice). This will help check the reliability of the data.

2.                Comments question by question

Question 1

The number of inhabitants should correspond as of 1 January of the reference year +1.

Please indicate the Gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices per capita. Gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices is GDP at prices of the current reporting period; also known as nominal GDP.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an indicator of economic activity which is the most commonly used and is usually measured on an annual or quarterly basis to determine the economic growth of a country from one period to another. GDP is a measure of total consumption, investment, government spending and the value of exports minus imports. This GDP shall be stated in current prices per capita on an annual basis.

This data is very useful to calculate several ratios that enable to carry out comparative analysis.

Please indicate the average gross annual salary and not the net salary in your country. The gross salary is calculated before any social expenses and taxes have been deducted. This data must be indicated in Euros.

The annual gross average salary is important information in order to calculate ratios allowing to measure and compare the salaries, for example of judges and public prosecutors.

Question 2

The annual public budget allocated to the functioning of all courts has been defined by the CEPEJ (see categories in question 3) and may differ from the member states’ definitions. For comparability reasons, please observe the CEPEJ categories.

Where appropriate, the annual budget allocated to the functioning of all courts must include both the budget at national level and at the level of regional or federal entities.

If you cannot separate the budget of the public prosecution services and / or the budget of legal aid from the budget allocated to the functioning of all courts, please indicate “NA” and answer to question 4.

Question 3

Definitions of the different categories:

• (Gross) salaries are those of all judicial and non-judicial staff working within courts, excluding, if appropriate, the public prosecution system (and the staff working for the prosecution services). This amount should include the total salary costs for the employer: if, in addition to the gross salary proper, the employer also pays insurances and/or pensions, these contributions should be included.

• Computerisation includes all the expenses for the installation, use and maintenance of computer systems (including the expenses paid to the technical staff).

• Justice expenses borne by the state (or by the justice system) refer to the amounts that the courts should pay out within the framework of judicial proceedings, such as expenses paid for expert opinions or court interpreters. Any expenses to be paid by the parties (court fees and taxes; see questions 8, 8.1, 8.2 and 9) or aimed at legal aid should not be indicated here (see question 12).

• Court buildings' budget includes all the costs that are related to the maintenance and operation of court buildings (costs for rental, electricity, security, cleaning, maintenance etc.). It does not include investments in new buildings.

• Investments in new court buildings include all the costs that are connected with investments in new court buildings.

• The annual public budget allocated to training includes the training directly covered by the courts. It does not include the specific budget of a separate public training institution for judges and / or prosecutors (see Q131).

• Other includes all figures that you cannot subsume under categories listed above.

The figures presented should preferably be the figures of the approved budget, namely the budget that has been formally approved by the Parliament (or another competent public authority). However, please specify if it is the implemented budget, that is to say the observed expenditures during the reference year.

Please note that the annual budget allocated to all courts does not include:

-       the budget of the prosecution system (see question 13);

-       the budget for legal aid (see question 12).

-       the budget for the prison and probation systems;

-       the budget for the operation of the Ministry of Justice (and/or any other institution which deals with the administration of justice);

-       the budget for the operation of other institutions (other than courts) attached to the Ministry of Justice;

-       the budget of the judicial protection of youth (social workers, etc);

-       the budget of the Constitutional courts;

-       the budget of the High Council for the Judiciary (or similar body);

-       the annual income of court fees or taxes received by the state.

Question 4

If you have answered to question 2, please fill in with “NAP” for this question.

Please note that the approved budget is the budget that has been formally approved by the Parliament (or another competent public authority). The implemented budget corresponds to the observed expenditures during the reference year.

Annual approved public budget allocated to legal aidrefers to the amount of the public budget allocated to legal aid in its widest sense.

The total amount should include only the sums to be paid to those benefiting from legal aid or their lawyers (excluding administrative costs resulting from such procedures).

If there is a single budget for judges and public prosecutors, please indicate, if possible, the proportion of this budget intended for public prosecutors. If part of the public prosecution’s budget is allocated to the police budget, or to any other budget, please indicate it.

The Public Prosecutor should be understood according to the following definition contained in Recommendation Rec(2000)19 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the role of public prosecution in the criminal justice system: "(…) authorities who, on behalf of society and in the public interest, ensure the application of the law where the breach of the law carries a criminal sanction, taking into account both the rights of the individual and the necessary effectiveness of the criminal justice system".

Questions 5 and 6

The total amount should include only the sums to be paid to those benefiting from legal aid or their lawyers (excluding administrative costs resulting from such procedures).

The approved budget is the budget that has been formally approved by the Parliament (or another competent public authority).

The implemented budget corresponds to the observed expenditures during the reference year.  

Question 7

A court can be considered either as a legal entity or a geographical location. Therefore it is required to number the courts according to both concepts, which allow in particular to give information on the accessibility of courts for the citizens.

For the number of legal entities (administrative structure), the possible different divisions of a court shall not be counted individually (for instance it is not correct to indicate “3” for the same court which includes one civil division, one criminal division and one administrative division. The correct answer is “1”). The different sites where are the courts are not counted (contrary to the question regarding the number of courts on a geographic location point of view, see below).

For the purpose of this question, a court of general jurisdiction is a court which deals with all the issues which are not attributed to specialised courts owing to the nature of the case.

Please, count as specialised courts only the courts which are indeed considered as such in your system. Are not considered here as specialised courts, for instance:

·         chambers responsible for "family cases" or "administrative law cases" that are under the authority of the same court of general jurisdiction,

·         a Supreme Court or a High Court dealing with all types of cases; they belong to the ordinary organisation of the judiciary.

Courts (geographic locations): For the purposes of this question, please indicate the total number of geographical locations (geographic sites where are the courts) where judicial hearings are taking place, numbering the courts of first instance of general jurisdiction, the specialised courts of first instance, second instance and appeal courts, as well as the Supreme Court or High Courts. Please count the different sites, including courtrooms, of the same court (for example, if the same court is split into two buildings, indicate "2").

Examples:

·         Estonia: Estonia has 17 courthouses of county courts, 4 courthouses of administrative courts, 2 courthouses of appellate courts and 1 courthouse of the Supreme Court. Some of the courts are situated in the same house. In addition, the Pärnu County Court has a courthouse that is divided between two locations. There are in fact 22 actual geographic locations of Estonian courts.

	Number of courts (geographic locations)	First instance general jurisdiction (legal entities)	First instance specialised jurisdiction (legal entities)
2010	22	4	2
2012	22	4	2
2013	22	4	2
2014	22	4	2
2015	22	4	2

·         Ireland : In Ireland, there are only 3 first instance courts (as legal entities) exercising general jurisdiction for the entire State (the High Court, the Circuit Court and the District Court). The number of geographic locations refers to physical locations serving as seats or venues for the 3 jurisdictions.

	Number of courts (geographic locations)	First instance general jurisdiction (legal entities)	First instance specialised jurisdiction (legal entities)
2010	119	3	1
2012	105	3	1
2013	100	3	1
2014	94	3	1
2015	94	3	1

Please note that the first two lines of the table relate only to the first instance courts. The last line concerns the geographical sites whatever the instance level.

Question 8

The data concerns all general jurisdictions and specialised courts.

In order to better understand gender issues in the judiciary, please specify the number of women and men who practice in the different court levels.

For the purposes of this question, professional judges are those who have been recruited, trained and who are paid as such. The information should be given for permanent posts that are actually filled (not the theoretical number included in the budget) and in full-time equivalent.

Occasional professional judges who do not perform their duty on a permanent basis but who are paid for their function as a judge.

For the purposes of this question, non-professional judges are those who sit in courts and whose decisions are binding but who do not belong to the categories mentioned above. This category includes namely lay judges and the (French) "juges consulaires". Neither the arbitrators, nor the persons who have been sitting in a jury are subject to this question.

The whole non-judge staff, working in all courts, must be counted here in full-time equivalent for permanents posts. Please make sure that the figures presented exclude staff working for the public prosecution services.

The Rechtspfleger is defined as an independent judicial body according to the tasks that were delegated to him/her by law. Such tasks can be connected to: family and guardianship law, law of succession, law on land register, commercial registers, decisions about granting a nationality, criminal law cases, enforcement of sentences, reduced sentencing by way of community service, prosecution in district courts, decisions concerning legal aid, etc. The Rechtspfleger has a quasi-judicial function.

Question 9

All prosecutors must be accounted, including those having specialised functions (e.g. public prosecutor specialised on organised crime, terrorism, economic crime, etc.).

In the case where prosecutors serve at several levels of jurisdictions, they should be assigned according to their main activity. In this respect, first instance prosecutors are those who know for the first time of a case. Second instance prosecutors are those performing prosecution functions in cases for which a first decision has been made.

If it is not possible for you to distinguish the main activity of a prosecutor, please provide the data in full time equivalent (FTE) for each instance to which the judge is attending.

Please number the non-prosecutor staff working for the prosecution system, even when this staff appears in the budget of the court. This figure should not include the number of staff working for judges. The information should be given in full time equivalent for posts which are actually filled (not the theoretic number included in the budget).

In order to better understand gender issues in the judiciary, please specify the number of female and male staff working at different levels of jurisdiction.

Questions 10 to 12 – Use of information technologies in courts

For questions 10 to 12, please see below the CEPEJ definitions of civil, criminal and administrative law cases.

Civil law cases: "civil law cases" refer to other than criminal law cases and include namely family law cases, commercial law cases, employment dismissal cases and administrative law cases.

Criminal law cases: are considered here as criminal cases, all cases for which a sanction may be imposed by a judge, even if this sanction is foreseen, in some national systems, in an administrative code (e.g. fines or community service). These can include, for example, some anti-social behaviour, nuisance or some traffic offenses.

Administrative law cases (litigious or non-litigious) concern disputes between citizens and (local, regional or national) authorities, for instance: asylum refusals or refusals of construction permit applications. Administrative law cases are in some countries addressed by special administrative courts or tribunals, while in other countries they are handled by the ordinary civil courts. If countries have special administrative courts/tribunals or separate administrative law procedures or are anyway able to distinguish between administrative law cases and civil law cases, these figures should be indicated separately under “administrative law cases”.

Question 10

Equipment rate(*) : this rate indicates the functional presence in courts of the devices described in the question wording, according the following scale:
100%	50-99%	10-49%	1-9%	0% (NAP)	NA
Device completely deployed and used	Device being deployed (being finalised or nearly finalised)	Device  being deployed (early deployment or being deployed)	Under testing in one or several pilot(s) site(s) or resulting from an individual initiative of the jurisdiction – please specify in comment	Device not existing or being designed	Non available data – please specify the reasons in comment of this section
The use rate can also be communicated in comment of the section if it is different from the equipment rate(*) (for example equipment deployed but little used by courts) indicating the difficulties encountered. This use rate can result of satisfaction surveys conducted by IT services, the consultation of the number of connections to an application or a website, etc.

Average speed to the internet in courts: there is no uniform legal or technical definition of the data transmission speed on the Internet, especially knowing that these concepts are evolutionary and relative. Some speeds may be considered by some countries as being high speed internet while they would be considered pertaining to another category for other countries.
By simple agreement and to allow an analysis on comparable data, the present evaluation will be based on this classification:
Medium internet speed		High internet speed		Very high internet speed
> 128 kilobits per second		> 2 megabits per second (2 Mbit/s)		> 20 megabits per second (20 Mbit/s)
< 2048 kilobits per second (i.e. 2 megabits per second)		< 20 megabits per second (20 Mbit/s)
It is required to communicate an average value or a value mostly present in courts and not the highest or the lowest value.

Question 11

Case management system: this question relates to software, ERP system, workflow used by courts to record and manage their cases.

Two precisions are required:

- Centralised or interoperable database – On the assumption of cases storage in a database consolidated at national level (or if interoperable databases exist) for all courts, the answer to give will have to be “yes”. If there is no a centralisation of data (for example, if the data are stored on a court server without any possibility of consolidation), the answer will then be “no”.

- Early warning signals – It is a question of whether the software has warning signals in order to have a dynamic and proactive management of cases. For example, it can refer to warnings of times elapsed (estimated or current) in order to prevent inventories or the exceeding of predefined threshold (detection for example of cases for which the age exceeds one or several years).

Question 12

Equipment rate: this rate indicates the functional presence in courts of the devices described in the question wording, according the following scale:
100%	50-99%	10-49%	1-9%	0% (NAP)	NA
Device completely deployed and used	Device being deployed (being finalised or nearly finalised)	Device  being deployed (early deployment or being deployed)	Under testing in one or several pilot(s) site(s) or resulting from an individual initiative of the jurisdiction – please specify in comment	Device not existing or being designed	Non available data – please specify the reasons in comment of this section
The use rate can also be communicated in comment of the section if it is different from the equipment rate(*) (for example equipment deployed but little used by courts) indicating the difficulties encountered. This use rate can result of satisfaction surveys conducted by IT services, the consultation of the number of connections to an application or a website, etc.

Question 13

§  Incoming cases are all cases submitted to court (first instance, second instance or Supreme Court) for the first time within the reference year. Cases which have already been submitted to a court at the same instance level (after an appeal for example) should be counted again.

§  Pending cases are cases which have not been completed within a given period. Please provide both the number of pending cases within the previous year (pending cases on 1 January of the reference year) and within the reference year (pending cases on 31 December of the reference year).

§  Resolved cases include all the procedures which have come to an end at the level considered (first instance, appeal or Supreme Court if applicable) during the year of reference, either through a judgment or through any other decision which ended the procedure (provisional decisions or decisions regarding the proceeding should not be counted here).

§  Litigious cases are cases for which the judge decides the case whereas non-litigious cases are cases which are not brought to court or for which a registration is made by an individual.

§  Litigious civil cases are for instance litigious divorce cases or disputes regarding contracts. Enforcement litigious cases (for example judicial appeal against deeds processed by a bailiff) are included in this category.

Among the civil cases, the CEPEJ wishes to focus more particularly on two types of litigation:

§  Litigious divorce case: i.e. the dissolution of a marriage contract between two persons, following a judgment of a competent court. The data should not include: divorce ruled by an agreement between the parties concerning the separation of the spouses and all its consequences (procedure of mutual consent, even if they are processed by the competent court) or ruled through an administrative procedure. If your country has a totally non-judicial procedure as regards divorce or if you cannot isolate data concerning adversarial divorces, please specify it and give the subsequent explanations. Furthermore, as regards divorce, if there are in your country compulsory mediation procedures or fixed timeframes for reflection or if the conciliation phase is excluded from the judicial proceeding, please specify it and give the subsequent explanations.

§  Employment dismissal case: cases concerning the termination of (an) employment (contract) at the initiative of the employer (working in the private sector). It does not include dismissals of public officials, following a disciplinary procedure for instance.

§   Administrative law cases (litigious or non-litigious) concern disputes between citizens and (local, regional or national) authorities, for instance: asylum refusals or refusals of construction permit applications. Administrative law cases are in some countries addressed by special administrative courts or tribunals, whilst in other countries they are handled by the ordinary civil courts. If countries have special administrative courts/tribunals or separate administrative law procedures or are anyway able to distinguish between administrative law cases and civil law cases, these figures should be indicated separately under “administrative law cases”. If the data is not available, please indicate NA (see 2^nd example below). Other countries should answer NAP (not applicable; see 1^st example below).

§   Pending cases older than 2 years are cases that on 31st December of the reference year have not been completed yet and the duration from their first arrival in the court is more than two years.

For this new category, you can answer NA if your statistical system does not allow measuring pending cases older than 2 years.

The average length of cases corresponds to the average length of resolved cases at this instance within the reference year.

If the average length of proceedings is not calculated from the lodging of court proceedings, please specify the starting point for the calculation. The average length of proceedings has to be presented in days. If you only have information on the length of proceedings in months (or years), please recalculate the length of proceedings in days.

Question 14

Discontinued criminal cases are cases received by the public prosecutor, which have not been brought before the court and for which no sanction or any other measure has been taken. Please indicate the number of cases discontinued because the case could not be processed, either (i) where no alleged offender was identified or (ii) due to the lack or absence of an established offence or a specific legal situation (e.g. amnesty) or (iii) for discretionary reasons, where the legal system allows it.

The column‘Cases concluded by a penalty or a measure imposed or negotiated by the public prosecutor’ should contain information regarding proceedings which have not been brought before a judge (for example all transactions not approved by a judge).

Traffic cases represent a large volume of cases, please specify whether the data indicated includes or not such cases. Relevant analyses based on a comparison of states or entities can be done only by considering clusters of states or entities which have or have not included traffic offences.

Question 15

Are considered here as criminal cases, all cases for which a sanction may be imposed by a judge, even if this sanction is foreseen, in some national systems, in an administrative code (e.g. fines or community service). These can include, for example, some anti-social behaviour, nuisance or some traffic offenses.

Warning: if these cases are included in the responses to this question, then they should not be counted a second time as "administrative cases" in the responses to question 13.

The offenses sanctioned directly by the police or by an administrative authority, and not by a judge, should not be counted (e.g. penalty for parking in a closed area not contested before a judge, or failure to comply with an administrative formality not contested before a judge).

Robbery concerns stealing from a person with force or threat of force. If possible these figures should include muggings (bag-snatching, armed theft, etc) and exclude pick pocketing, extortion and blackmail (according to the definition of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice). The data should not include attempts. The case should be counted here when the robbery is either the only offence concerned or the main offence concerned in the case.

Intentional homicide is defined as the intentional killing of a person. Where possible the figures should include assaults leading to death, euthanasia, infanticide and exclude suicide assistance (according to the definition of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice). The data should not include attempts. The case should be counted here when the intentional homicide is either the only offence concerned or the main offence concerned in the case.

Incoming cases are all cases submitted to court (first instance, second instance or Supreme Court) for the first time within the reference year. Cases which have already been submitted to a court at the same instance level (after an appeal for example) should be counted again. Pending cases are cases which have not been completed within a given period. Please provide both the number of pending cases within the previous year (pending cases on 1 January of the reference year) and within the reference year (pending cases on 31 December of the reference year).

Resolved cases include all the procedures which have come to an end at the level considered (first instance, appeal or Supreme Court if applicable) during the year of reference, either through a judgment or through any other decision which ended the procedure (provisional decisions or decisions regarding the proceeding should not be counted here).

The average length of cases corresponds to the average length of resolved cases at this instance within the reference year.

If the average length of proceedings is not calculated from the lodging of court proceedings, please specify the starting point for the calculation. The average length of proceedings has to be presented in days. If you only have information on the length of proceedings in months (or years), please recalculate the length of proceedings in days.

Question 16

Two different indicators are analysed: the salary at the beginning of the career (at a first instance court for a judge/public prosecutor; starting salary at his/her salary scale) and the salary at the end of the career (at the Supreme Court or the Highest Appellate Court). They represent the salary at full-time equivalent. If a bonus given to judges significantly increases their income, please specify it and, if possible, indicate the annual amount of such bonus or the proportion that the bonus takes in the judge's income. This bonus does not include the bonus mentioned under question 129.

The gross salary is calculated before any welfare costs and taxes have been paid.

The net salary is calculated after the deduction of welfare costs (such as pension schemes) and taxes (for those countries where they are deducted beforehand and automatically from the sources of income; when this is not the case, please indicate that the judge has to pay further income taxes on this "net" salary, so that it can be taken into account in the comparison).

If it is not possible to indicate a determined amount, please indicate the minimum and maximum annual gross and net salary.

Question 17

Question 18

Question 19

As a conclusion, this question offers the possibility to indicate general or more specific information on the on-going and planned reforms to be undertaken to improve the quality and the efficiency of justice.