Strasbourg, 6 December 2021

CEPEJ-SATURN(2021)9

EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOR THE EFFICIENCY OF JUSTICE

(CEPEJ)

WORKING GROUP ON JUDICIAL TIME MANAGEMENT

(CEPEJ-SATURN)

31^st meeting (hybrid) - Strasbourg/ videoconference, 13 - 14 October 2021

MEETING REPORT

Report prepared by the Secretariat

Directorate General I - Human Rights and the Rule of Law

1.         INTRODUCTION

1.             The Working Group on judicial time management of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ-SATURN) held its 31^st meeting on 13 and 14 October 2021. Considering the sanitary situation, the meeting took place in a hybrid form via Bluejeans system.

2.             The agenda and the list of participants are attached, as Appendices I and II respectively, to this report.

2.         ROLE FORTHE PARTIES AND PRACTITIONERS IN PREVENTING DELAYS IN COURT PROCEEDINGS

3.             The Working Group examined the draft revised Guidelines for judicial time management (4^th version) respectively for non-judge court staff, lawyers, court-appointed experts, enforcement agents and Rechtspfleger[1]. The five sets of guidelines complement the existing SATURN Guidelines for judicial time management[2]. They were elaborated by the following scientific experts: Laure LUCHETTA MYIT (Switzerland), Joan Miquel RASCAGNERES (Andorra), Gilbert COUSTEAUX (France), Mathieu CHARDON (France) and Wolfgang LAEMMER (Germany). The document was revised also in the light of the comments submitted at the different stages of the drafting process by the pilot courts, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the European Expertise and Expert Institute (EEEI), the International Union of Judicial Officers (UIHJ) and the European Union of Rechtspfleger and Court Clerks (EUR)[3]. The Working Group agreed to submit the revised SATURN Guidelines to the CEPEJ with a view to its adoption at the plenary meeting in December 2021. The revised version will be sent to the experts and the above professional associations for a final check before its submission to the CEPEJ.

3.         JUDICIAL TIME MANAGEMENT IN TIMES OF SANITARY CRISIS

4.             The Secretariat presented the draft Guidelines for judicial time management in times of health crisis and the draft analytical report on the experience of pilot courts[4] prepared on the basis of contributions from scientific experts. The document was based on the replies to a questionnaire addressed to the pilot courts in March 2021: 32 pilot courts from 28 member States responded to the questionnaire sending the requested information on measures taken during successive waves of the pandemic between March 2020 and March 2021. The pilot courts showed interest in exchanging experience in managing courts during the pandemic, as also demonstrated by the important number of replies received.     

5.             The Working Group stressed the importance of developing guidelines for courts that would be complementary to the CEPEJ Declaration on lessons learnt and challenges faced by the judiciary during and after the COVID-19 pandemic[5] adopted on 10 June 2020. It noted, at the same time, that while there were some interesting experience and measures identified, the document does not, however, provide sufficient material to prepare self-standing guidelines that might serve the judiciary and the authorities to manage courts in times of sanitary crisis without repeating measures named in the above CEPEJ Declaration.

6.             The Working Group therefore decided that, instead of guidelines, an analytical report will be prepared focusing on the experience from the working arrangements used during the COVID-19 pandemic in pilot courts. The replies of pilot courts should be attached to the report after receiving their consent for publication. The analytical report will be presented at the next meeting of pilot courts, which should take place in March 2022, and complemented by their contributions. The final report should contain lessons learnt and measures taken during the pandemic with a particular focus on long-term measures which will remain in place after the pandemic. Examples of these measures are a wider use of teleworking and videoconferences and an increase in digitalisation of courts.

4.         TRAINING CURRICULUM ON CEPEJ TOOLS ON JUDICIAL TIME MANAGEMENT

7.             The Secretariat informed the CEPEJ-SATURN of the decision to develop a HELP online course for CEPEJ. The course will be developed by CEPEJ experts in co-operation with the CEPEJ and HELP Secretariats. The course modules could be structured according to target groups (e.g. judges, lawyers or court managers) or themes that might be more general or tool specific. The Working Group stressed that mediation should be part of the course. The two approaches can be envisaged regarding the SATURN work: i) a longer general module presenting the various aspects of judicial time management, or ii) several short modules, each focusing on a selected tool (e.g. case-weighting, timeframes or court dashboards). The Working Group acknowledged the good outreach of the HELP programme that will contribute to promoting the CEPEJ work.  

   

5.         TOOLS ENABLING TO BETTER ANALYSE TIMEFRAMES ACCORDING TO THE VARIOUS STAGES OF CIVIL PROCEEDINGS

8.             The Secretariat presented a draft questionnaire on detecting delays in civil proceedings[6] that was developed based on preparatory work carried out by Ruth STRAGANZ-SCHRŐFL (Austria) in early 2021. The Task Force set up in May 2021 and composed of Giacomo OBERTO (Italy), Marco FABRI (Italy), Ruth STRAGANZ-SCHRŐFL (Austria) and the CEPEJ Secretariat prepared the draft questionnaire. Itaims to identify the legal deadlines for conducting individual steps in a regular specific procedure, their (estimated) actual duration in practice, and why there may be a difference between the two. The overall aim of this action is to detect the delays in civil proceedings and to identify the reasons for their occurrence.

 

9.             The Working Group expressed its appreciation for the questionnaire which is simple and focuses only on the procedural steps that most likely exist in all jurisdictions in the first and second instance. The data will be collected according to the following stages of civil proceedings: serving documents, filing a response to the legal action by the defendant, preliminary hearing (or first hearing in some jurisdictions), issuing an oral judgment, issuing a written judgment, filing an appeal on the first instance judgment.

10.          After the analysis of the first set of data, the Working Group will reflect on how to further continue to work on this project and on the possibility to expend the questionnaire to the criminal and administrative proceedings.

11.          The questionnaire will be presented at the CEPEJ plenary meeting in December 2021 for information. The Working Group’s members were asked to send to the Secretariat any comments which might have on this draft questionnaire by 15 November 2021.

6.         FUTURE WORK OF CEPEJ-SATURN

12.          The Working Group exchanged on future work with a view of the adoption of the 2022-2023 Activity Programme of the CEPEJ. The themes suggested for possible future work are as follows:

  

a.             develop a tool enabling to better analyse the various timeframes according to the various steps of the civil procedure;

b.            develop a tool helping to implement a case-weighting system for prosecutors;

c.             draft a proposal to update the Recommendation No. R (86)12 of the Committee of Ministers to Member States concerning measures to prevent and reduce the excessive workload in the courts;

d.            develop tools supporting courts and justice professionals in improving judicial time management and court management, for example by updating the CEPEJ Time management checklist[7];

e.             promote and assess the implementation in the member States of the SATURN Guidelines for judicial time management and update the Guidelines as needed;

f.             develop a compilation of good practices analysing success factors concerning judicial time management in member States, taking into account the CEPEJ Compendium of good practices on judicial time management[8];

g.            contribute to the HELP training modules reflecting the work in the field of judicial time management;

h.             contribute to the implementation of the relevant co-operation programmes.

13.          The Group also discussed possible synergies with the CEPEJ-GT-QUAL and CEPEJ-GT-CYBERJUST in particular on transversal themes pertaining to time management and the excessive length of judicial proceedings without deciding at this stage on any concrete proposal.

14.          Two potential themes were also raised with a view to complementing the work done on the SATURN Guidelines for judicial time management: to add guidelines for mediators and conciliators, in co-operation with the CEPEJ-QUAL; to link the new guidelines for court-appointed experts with guidelines on the role of judges, court managers and lawyers to avoid delays in preparation of expert opinions. The work may involve collecting good practices and lessons learnt regarding expert opinions and observance of the “reasonable time limit” in judicial proceedings in the Member States. The CEPEJ guidelines on the role of court-appointed experts developed by CEPEJ-GT-QUAL and adopted in 2014 would be taken into account, if this theme is retained.

7. OTHER BUSINESS

15.          The next meeting of the CEPEJ-SATURN would most likely take place in Lublin, Poland, on 9-11 March 2022 together with the meeting of the Network of pilot courts.

APPENDIX I : DRAFT AGENDA

APPENDIX II 

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS / LISTE DES PARTICIPANTS

***

MEMBERS / MEMBRES

Vassilis ANDROULAKIS, Judge, Council of State, Athens, GREECE

Ivana BORZOVÁ, Head of Department of Civil Supervision, Ministry of Justice, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC

Ivan CRNČEC, Assistant Minister of Justice, Zagreb, CROATIA

Francesco DEPASQUALE, Magistrate, Legal Advisor to the Director General, Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, Valletta, MALTA

Giacomo OBERTO, Magistrat, Tribunal de Grande Instance de Turin, ITALIE, President of SATURN / Président du SATURN

Xavier RONSIN, Premier Président de la Cour d'appel de Rennes, FRANCE, Apologised/Excusé

***

Scientific ExpertS / Experts scientifiques

Michal DABROWSKI, District Court judge delegated to the Ministry of Justice, Department of International Cooperation and Human Rights, Warsaw, POLAND

Marco FABRI, National Research Council (IRSIG-CNR), Bologna, ITALY

Ruth STRAGANZ-SCHROEFL, Federal Ministry of Constitution, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice, Vienna, AUSTRIA

                                                                                        ***

OBSERVERS / OBSERVATEURS

EUROPEAN UNION OF RECHTSPFLEGER AND COURT CLERKS / UNION EUROPEENNE DES GREFFIERS DE JUSTICE (EUR)

Wolfgang LAEMMER, President

COUNCIL OF THE BARS AND LAW SOCIETIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION / CONSEIL DES BARREAUX EUROPÉENS (CCBE)

James MacGUILL, Vice-President

Anna SMOLINSKA, Legal Advisor

***

COUNCIL OF EUROPE / CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

SECRETARIAT

Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law (DGI) 

Direction générale droits de l’Homme et Etat de droit (DGI)

E-mail : [email protected]

Muriel DECOT, Secretary of the CEPEJ

Eva KONECNA, Secretary of the Group CEPEJ-SATURN

Milan NIKOLIC, Co-Secretary of the Group CEPEJ-SATURN