Brussels, 11/04/2016 (Agence Europe) -According to the 2016 scoreboard of national judicial systems that was presented by European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova on Monday 11 April, the member states have all improved their handling of civil and commercial cases over the last three months.
However, the results vary significantly from country to country, particularly as regards the public's perception of the independence of judges.
One of the main findings from this 2016 scoreboard is that most member states are actively trying to improve their judicial system, the European Commission states in a press release. The measures they have adopted range from an in-depth reform of procedural law, to greater use of information and communication technology (ICT), to a better promotion of out-of-court dispute settlement.
The length of litigious civil and commercial cases has also fallen - especially in Italy, Malta and Latvia (although these cases also take longest to settle in Cyprus, Malta and Italy). The Commission notes better accessibility to justice systems due, for example, to the electronic submission of small claims or promotion of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods.
“However, there is still room for improvement in online availability of judgments or electronic communication between courts and parties”, the Commission states, believing also that “further efforts are still needed to improve the training in judicial skills and the use of ICT for case management systems”.
Another weakness is due to the fact that only a handful of member states have established standards on measures to reduce existing backlogs. Only six member states have done this (including Belgium, Bulgaria and Italy) and “even fewer define the maximum age that pending cases should have”.
As regards the independence of judges and how the public perceive this, the situation is worst in Slovakia, Bulgaria, Italy and Croatia, according to the Commission scoreboard (which is itself based on a Eurobarometer survey). The independence of judges is nevertheless best perceived in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Austria and Estonia. France and Romania come in the middle of the scoreboard on this, behind Cyprus and Belgium - two member states where the citizens are proportionally more numerous in having a positive opinion of their judges and their lawcourts. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)