Public assessment of the quality of work of courts in Chernihiv region – research results

On July 24, 2019, in the conference hall of the Chernihiv Court of Appeal, a presentation of the report on the results of a survey of court visitors’ satisfaction with certain aspects of the court’s work according to the KGZ methodology within the framework of the court performance evaluation system (SORS) in the Chernihiv region was held.

The event was attended by the management and judges of the appellate, commercial, administrative and other general courts of the Chernihiv region, representatives of the State Judicial Administration, the Main Territorial Department of Justice and the Regional Center for the Provision of Free Secondary Legal Aid in the Chernihiv region, representatives of the legal and human rights community.

The survey was conducted by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights within the framework of the project “Conducting surveys of participants in judicial proceedings using the methodology of citizen reporting cards (CGC) in Chernihiv and Sumy regions”, which was implemented with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the framework of the New Justice project.

During April-May 2019, specially trained interviewers conducted a survey of an average of 60 respondents – visitors (1466 people) in 26 courts of Chernihiv region. The surveys were conducted directly in the premises of the courts through individual personal interviews.

“Court visitors had the opportunity to evaluate their activities according to the following parameters: accessibility of the court, convenience and comfort of being in court, completeness and clarity of information, compliance with the terms of the trial, perception of the work of the court staff, perception of the work of the judge, as well as provide their recommendations for improving the specified parameters and give their assessment of the recently created “Electronic Court” system – noted during the presentation

Kateryna Dankova

, head of programs of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights.

According to

Kateryna Dankova

, in general, on a 5-point scale, visitors rated the work of the courts of the Chernihiv region quite highly. The average integral indicator for all specified parameters – quality measurements for 26 courts of the region is 4.48 points.

Thus, respondents in the courts of the Chernihiv region rated “accessibility of the court” at 4.28 points. Comments on the work of the courts are typical: “unhindered access to the court premises for people with disabilities”, “many cannot afford the costs of lawyer services”, “parking for visitors’ cars”.

The highest score achieved by the courts of the Chernihiv region was found in the dimension “completeness and clarity of information”. Here, the average score of the measurement reached 4.57 points. This is evidenced by the presence in the courts of information stands with information necessary for visitors about cases, cases assigned for consideration, samples of necessary documents. At the same time, the courts are quite different in the completeness of the information stands, for example, samples of claims, petitions.

The most variable is the average score of convenience and comfort of being in court. So, quite often, court visitors complained about the lack of repairs and the problem of free access to household premises (toilets). For example, in some courts located in district centers of Chernihiv region, there is a problem related to the fact that toilets are mainly located on the street. In addition, the concept of convenience and comfort for many court visitors is associated with problems with connecting to free wi-fi in the court, the presence of a buffet, a terminal for paying court fees, a water cooler, and a coffee machine.

As Gennady Salai, head of the Chernihiv Court of Appeal, noted, research on assessing the level of quality of court work is relevant today, since taking into account the opinions of visitors is a necessary condition for obtaining a holistic and consistent idea of ​​​​the actual results of the court’s activities. But at the same time, such assessment criteria as the accessibility of the court and the convenience of being in court depend on state funding and are lower than those that directly depend on the court, namely the completeness and clarity of information, the perception of the work of court staff and judges, etc.

During the discussion of the results of the study, representatives of the judicial corps assured that they are ready for critical comments and have a desire to change, as this can contribute to achieving a significant improvement in the efficiency of judicial proceedings and strengthening trust in the court in Ukrainian society.

You can read the abridged version of the report on the results of the study.

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Contacts:

Kateryna Dankova, Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, (063) 158-32-46, e-mail: .

For information:

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