Digitalisation as the main tool to improve the efficiency of court proceedings

Minister of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation Damir Habijan participated in the workshop "Civil Procedure Act as a tool to improve the efficiency of first instance proceedings", held in Opatija under the Croatia Court Excellence Program (CCEP).

The CCEP is a project funded by the US Department of State and successfully implemented by the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation and the East-West Management Institute (EWMI).

"Today, digitalisation is the main driving force in both the private and business environments. We are aware at the Ministry of Justice, Public Administration and Digital Transformation of its importance and power, as evidenced by the existence of the Independent Sector for the Digitalisation of Justice and Public Administration within the Ministry itself”, said Minister Habijan.

"In addition, as you know, our Ministry has recently expanded its scope and taken over tasks from the area of digital transformation", he added.

Minister Habijan spoke about the Civil Procedure Act as a tool to improve the efficiency of first instance proceedings. 

"Sound recording of hearings will capture their actual course and all happenings in the courtroom, thus increasing transparency and enabling faster availability of information, which is often not the case with the minutes", Minister Habijan underlined, adding that the technical documentation of proceedings would guarantee the authenticity of the facts presented by the parties to the proceedings and reduce the burden on the courts. 

Minister Habijan announced that sound recording will start in May 2025 in 1,317 courtrooms at 123 locations. "The total value of the project introducing sound recording is around 10.6 million euros".

In addition, he recalled that the latest amendments to the Civil Procedure Act introduced precise deadlines for the completion of proceedings. The deadline for rendering a decision at first instance is three years, in appellate proceedings one year, while a decision on allowing a review must be rendered within six months and the decision in a review within two years.

The Minister highlighted another important novelty, namely that the small claims procedure is now by default a written procedure, which reduces the duration of such civil procedures.

"Our main objective is to use digitalisation to support the judiciary in Croatia by improving the efficiency of court proceedings in civil and commercial courts", concluded Minister Habijan.

The activities of the CCEP were aimed at increasing the efficiency of the judiciary in Croatian courts by applying active case management (ACM) techniques, encouraging innovative solutions introduced in three pilot courts, developing court communication and public outreach strategies, and holding trainings, workshops and a national conference on priority issues in the judicial system. This was the final workshop, where the completion and results of all project activities were presented.
 

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