“At present, there is an urgent need to clearly define approaches to determining the size of salaries and mandatory allowances for court staff. Salaries should be competitive and in line with general labor market indicators”, – emphasized member of the High Council of Justice Oleh Prudivus during the regular meeting of the working group on ensuring adequate funding for the judiciary in Ukraine, established within the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy.
He noted that in order to immediate realization of events for solving issues of financial provision of the activity of the judiciary, the HCJ, within its powers, on June 23, 2021, addressed the National Agency of Ukraine on civil service with the request to involve representatives of the Council in participation in the working group on the determination of the salary scheme for civil servants of courts, bodies and institutions of the justice system. As stated in the official response of the NACS, the working group has not been established yet.
“Currently, it is difficult to predict the level of salary of court employees, as the amount of incentive payments depends on the availability of funds. It is advisable to introduce an approach in which the size of the salary would play a decisive role. The level of salaries should be guaranteed and not depend on allowances, which, in turn, depend on savings or additional income. Therefore, the issue of developing by NACS the salary scheme for court staff needs an urgent solution”, – noted Oleh Prudivus.
Besides, participants of the working group continued considering issues of financing of the implementation of the Integrated judicial information and telecommunication system.
2. HCJ seconded two judges to administer justice
The High Council of Justice on July 6, 2021, decided to second two judges for administering justice for the term of one year from July 21, 2021, namely:
- judge of the Sievierodonetskyi city court of Luhansk region Sinitsyn Eduard Mykolaiovych – to the Oktiabrskyi district court of Poltava;
- judge of the Koriukivskyi district court of Chernihiv region Karaputa Olena Oleksandrivna – to the Novozavodskyi district court of Chernihiv.
3. HCJ suspended judge of the Oktiabrskyi district court of Poltava from administering justice
The High Council of Justice decided temporarily, for the term of six months, suspended judge of the Oktiabrskyi district court of Poltava Andriienko Hanna Viacheslavivna from administering justice with the deprivation of the right to receive additional payments to the salary of a judge and with obligatory sending to the National School of Judges of Ukraine for passing a training course on the topic “Civil procedural legislation” and further qualification assessment for confirmation of a judge’s ability to administer justice in the relevant court.
4. HCJ suspended judge of the Sadhirskyi district court of Chernivtsi from administering justice
The High Council of Justice temporarily, for the term of three months, suspended the judge of the Sadhirskyi district court of Chernivtsi Triska Andrii Ivanovych from administering justice with the deprivation of the right to receive additional payments to the salary of a judge and with sending to the National School of Judges of Ukraine for training on judicial ethics and further qualification assessment for confirmation of a judge’s ability to administer justice in the relevant court.
Judge Nevmerzhytska O.A. informed that interference in her activity concerning administering justice she connects with having on consideration of criminal proceedings on charges of B. and F. in the commission of the criminal offense provided by part three of Article 289 of the Criminal code of Ukraine (illegal possession of a vehicle), and the receipt of messages from the victim M. to the official e-mail address of the court, containing warnings in which she sees open threats. The judge considers such actions as pressure on her.
Korosten circuit prosecutor’s office started a criminal proceeding by the fact of interference in the activity of judge of the Korostenskyi city district court of Zhytomyr region Nevmerzhytska O.A. by signs of criminal offense provided by part one of Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. At present, the pre-trial investigation in this criminal case is ongoing.
Given the above, the HCJ decided to address the Prosecutor General’s Office on providing information regarding disclosure and investigation of a crime in criminal proceedings, entered in the Unified register of pre-trial investigations by signs of a criminal offense, provided by part one of Article 376 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, by notification of the judge of the Korostenskyi city district court of Zhytomyr region Olena Nevmerzhytska.
6. Procedure of secondment judges to the Irpin city court of Kyiv region has begun
According to the decision of July 6, 2021, No. 1474/0/15-21, the High Council of Justice announces the beginning of the procedure for seconding judges to another court of the same level and specialization for administering justice, namely to
2 judges to the Irpin city court of Kyiv region.
Judges who expressed the wish to be seconded to the mentioned court must submit to the High Council of Justice within ten days (from the date of the announcement of the beginning of the procedure for seconding judges) documents, the list of which is here.
On July 6, 2021, a report on the results of legal and financial analysis of state financing of the judicial system of Ukraine for the period 2018-2021 was presented at the High Council of Justice. The document was prepared in the framework of cooperation and with the assistance of Council of Europe projects “Support for judicial institutions and processes to strengthen access to justice in Ukraine” and “Further support for the execution by Ukraine of judgments in respect of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights”.
The report is prepared for the purpose of the complex analysis of the coordinated volume of financial and legal issues of financing of the judicial system in Ukraine, including the impact of such funding on guaranteeing the right to a fair trial. It contains general recommendations on measures that can be taken to address the identified problematic aspects of the financing of the judicial system in Ukraine.
Salaries of court staff should be different from those of other civil servants, as court service is a separate special type of civil service. This was said by the member of the High Council of Justice Oleh Prudivus during the presentation of the report by the results of legal and financial analysis of state financing of the judicial system of Ukraine for the period 2018-2021.
“Salaries of court staff should be correlated with the amount of judges' remuneration. Salaries should be predictable so that people do not think about whether they will be paid incentive bonuses that depend on the savings of the salary fund”, – emphasized Oleh Prudivus.
On July 8, 2021, the HCJ made a decision to dismiss due to the submission of applications for the resignation of two judges: Mazur Nina Volodymyrivna – from the position of the judge of the Shepetivskyi city district court of Khmelnytskyi region and Shpynta Mykhailo Dmytrovych – from the position of the judge of the Rivne appellate court.
Survey on trust to the judiciary, other branches of government and public institutions, independence and accountability of judges, conducted among the general public by the USAID New Justice Program, showed a much higher level of trust of the professional community in the judiciary compared to the executive and legislative branches.
In general, the judiciary is fully trusted by 27% of lawyers surveyed. Individual courts in which they carry out the representation, – 40 %; Supreme Court – 37 %; High Anti-Corruption Court – 27 %; National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine – 19 %; National agency on corruption prevention – 15 %; Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine – 7 %; Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine – 7 %.
Commenting on the results of the survey of the professional community, HCJ member Oleh Prudivus noted: “If competently assess the attitude to the judiciary, it is necessary to rely on the assessment of lawyers – specialists who are familiar with the role, functions, content of the judiciary and the judicial process, as well as with the system of state bodies of executive and legislative power. The survey showed that 7% of the surveyed lawyers fully trust the executive and legislative branches, and 27% trust the judiciary. That is, those who understand the specifics of the work of the courts, almost four times higher value the judiciary compared to other institutions, even anti-corruption bodies”.
Survey on trust to the judiciary, other branches of government and public institutions, independence and accountability of judges, conducted among the general public by the USAID New Justice Program, stated that citizens who have applied to the courts, perceive more positively their work.
The research was conducted separately in certain groups of respondents (2,000 respondents were involved in the survey among the general public, among lawyers and prosecutors – 630 respondents, among judges – 550 respondents).
As part of the survey, 14% of representatives of the public reported that they had experience in litigation at least once in the last 24 months. Their perception of the courts is more positive. 62% of court users admitted that they were not requested to pay bribes, informal payments or gifts when interacting with the courts, and 46% acknowledged that judges made legal and fair decisions. 35% of respondents with experience in cooperating with courts reported that they trusted the courts in which they participated in court proceedings. A neutral attitude was expressed by 30% of respondents.
Member of the High Council of Justice Larysa Shvetsova, commenting on these figures, noted that it is the point of view of those who appealed to the court that is closest to reflecting the real state of affairs. After all, most of those who appealed to the court trust the courts and consider their decisions legal and fair. “Among the surveyed public, only 14% of respondents took part in court hearings. At the same time, the opinion of those who applied to the court is important, because it is based on personal experience, is more objective and shows the real picture”, – noted HCJ member.