European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ)

Network of Pilot Courts

3^nd plenary meeting - Catania, 24 October 2008 - Conclusions

The members of the CEPEJ Network of Pilot courts met in Catania (Italy) for their third plenary meeting on 24 October 2008. They agreed on the following points regarding the operational cooperation with the CEPEJ.

THE CEPEJ IS INVITED IN PARTICULAR

as regards the evaluation of judicial systems

§ to conduct an in-depth study on the role of lawyers in judicial proceedings, on the basis of the information of its 2006 – 2008 evaluation cycle;

as regards the regular information on its work

§ to pursue and improve the regular dissemination of information on the measures and tools that it designs, in particular through the CEPEJ Newsletter which should be sent to all representatives of the pilot courts;

§ to simplify the use of the web site discussion forum to encourage further exchanges between pilot courts through this communication tool;

§ to encourage the CEPEJ’s members to meet regularly with the representatives of the pilot courts to discuss the implementation of the CEPEJ’s activity programme and to collect their comments and suggestions;

THE PILOT COURTS ARE INVITED IN PARTICULAR TO

as regards judicial time management

§ to organise the systems of statistics of the court so that a relevant information can be given as from 2009 (and possibly 2008) on the length of proceedings regarding at least the following case categories: litigious divorces, dismissals, robberies and international homicides, as defined in the explanatory note to the CEPEJ’s evaluation scheme (under question 92) – and to indicate the necessary comments enabling to sharpen these definitions if necessary;

§ to encourage the relevant national authorities to organise the general system of statistics so that they are able to give appropriate information on the length of proceedings for these four case categories;

§ to trial within the court, as from 2009, the models of statistics and the calculation methods and ratios (clearance rate, disposition time and efficiency indicator) proposed in the SATURN guidelines on judicial time management, so that they can progressively become European models applicable in all European courts;

as regards the quality of justice

§ to trial within the court, in 2009, the CEPEJ’s “Checklist for promoting the quality of justice and the courts” and to forward the results of this experience to the Secretariat of the CEPEJ through a specific questionnaire which will be sent to the Network’s members;

§ to fulfil the specific questionnaire on the contractualisation of judicial proceedings which will be sent to the Network’s members before the first half of 2009 and to indicate to the CEPEJ’s Secretariat the national and other relevant bodies which could usefully answer to this questionnaire;

as regards the participation to the regular activities of the CEPEJ

§ to organise specific events within their court to celebrate the European Day of Justice (25 October) and to inform the Secretariat of these initiatives, to be posted on the CEPEJ Web site;

§ to participate, where appropriate, in the European Prize of innovative practices contributing to the quality of justice; "The Crystal Scales of Justice" (in civil or/and in criminal matters) or/and to encourage other courts to do so;

as regards the dissemination of the information on CEPEJ’s activities

§ to organise a regular information on the CEPEJ’s activities for the judicial and non judicial within the court, including in inviting on a regular basis the national member of the CEPEJ to visit the court;

§ to disseminate the information on the CEPEJ’s work and the documents designed by the CEPEJ among other courts in their countries;

§ to consult regularly the CEPEJ web site and to participate actively in the discussion forum;

§ to insert into the court’s web site, where appropriate, a hyperlink to the CEPEJ’s web site;

§ to indicate to the Secretariat of the CEPEJ mailing lists so that relevant information on the work of the CEPEJ can be sent directly to the stakeholders;

§ to indicate to the Secretariat of the CEPEJ any changes in the details of the court and of the court’s representatives so that the information can be properly sent by the Secretariat to the network’s members.