In August 2021 the High Council of Justice approved the Regulation on the functioning of separate IJITS subsystems (modules). The Regulation became the first stage of implementation of the E-court and established the procedure and the main principles of functioning of digital systems and services in the judiciary.
Such services are currently available:
- E-cabinet;
- “E-court” subsystem;
- videoconference subsystem.
According to acting Chairman of the High Council of Justice Oleksii Malovatskyi, new services will give the possibility to save the time of parties in court and state’s expenses, gradually transfer the judiciary to work in the "paperless" mode – exchange of electronic documents exclusively.
The innovations allow the court to send online subpoenas and notices to the parties, procedural documents and court decisions, and for parties – to get acquainted with the materials of the court case remotely, submit procedural documents, remotely participate in court hearings, etc.
2. Discussion of a draft law on determination of salary schemes for employees of courts and judicial authorities continues
During the regular meeting of the working group on ensuring adequate funding for the judiciary in Ukraine, formed in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on legal policy, participants discussed proposals to the draft law on making amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges” to determine salary schemes for employees of courts and judicial authorities and the current financial condition of judicial institutions.
Member of the High Council of Justice Oleh Prudivus informed participants of the working group about measures, made by the Council to overcome the crisis situation caused by underfunding of judicial institutions.
In particular:
– the HCJ addressed the Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Ministry of Finances of Ukraine the letter with the request to increase expenditures for the main administrators of budget funds of the justice system in the draft Law of Ukraine “On the State budget of Ukraine for 2022”;
– a joint meeting between HCJ members, representatives of the Council of Judges of Ukraine and the SJA was held to develop a consolidated position of the judiciary on compensation for unreceived judicial remuneration for the period of restrictions, established by the Law of Ukraine of April 13, 2020, No. 553-ІХ “On making amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On the State budget of Ukraine for 2020”;
– the meeting of HCJ members and SJA representatives was held to discuss the redistribution of funds to ensure the payment of salaries to court staff, taking into account incentive payments in the amount of 20% of salary by the end of the year.
3. HCJ reacted to the notification of the judge of the Prymorskyi district court of Mariupol of Donetsk region on interference in his professional activity of a judge regarding administering justice
The High Council of Justice stated the existence of grounds to address the Prosecutor General’s Office according to facts, stated in the notification of judge of the Prymorskyi district court of Mariupol of Donetsk region Oleksii Shyshylin.
The judge notified about the obstacles during a court hearing from the side of the victims in the criminal case. In particular, the victims behaved defiantly, showed contempt of court, as a result, the court hearing was disrupted. Apart from that, judges were recused numerous times in other court hearings during the consideration of the mentioned case. One of the victims also made a threat, which the judge perceived as a threat of physical violence, about which the judge immediately reported to law enforcement agencies.
4. HCJ reacted to the notification on interference in the activity of a chief judge of the Central appellate commercial court
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 according to facts, notified by the chief judge of the Central appellate commercial court Yurii Parusnikov.
Chief judge notified that the representative of a party on the case demanded from him to appoint judges to hear the case "manually", rather than by automated case distribution, obstructed holding a court hearing, showed aggression and contempt of court, grossly violated public order, did not respond to comments, allowed insulting and abusive remarks to the court, accused the court of committing serious crimes and threatened judges and employees of the Court security service with violence and murder.
5. Seventeen judges resigned
The High Council of Justice on September 7, 2021, decided to dismiss due to the submission of applications for resignation of six judges, namely:
Bilyk Hanna Oleksiivna – from the position of the judge of the Brovary city district court of Kyiv region;
Lynnyk Oksana Serhiivna – from the position of the judge of the Trostianetskyi district court of Sumy region;
Laban Halyna Vasylivna – from the position of the judge of the Khmelnytskyi circuit administrative court;
Husak Mykola Borysovych – from the position of the judge of the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court;
Savkova Svitlana Volodymyrivna – from the position of the judge of the Donetsk appellate court;
Kolotylo Onufrii Oleksandrovych – from the position of the judge of the Chernivtsi appellate court.
The High Council of Justice on September 9, 2021, decided to dismiss 11 judges, 8 of which are judges of appellate courts, due to the submission of applications for resignation:
Bulba Oleksandr Mykolaiovych – from the position of the judge of the Enerhodar city court of Zaporizhzhia region;
Khodorovskyi Mykhailo Vasyliovych – from the position of the judge of the Ternopil appellate court;
Makaryk Volodymyr Yaroslavovych – from the position of the judge of the Eighth appellate administrative court;
Kruhova Svitlana Samuilivna – from the position of the judge of the Kharkiv appellate court;
Petrenko Ihor Vasyliovych – from the position of the judge of the commercial court of Dnipropetrovsk region;
Krul Iryna Vasylivna – from the position of the judge of the Bohorodchanskyi district court of Ivano-Frankivsk region;
Myrutenko Oleksandr Leontiiovych – from the position of the judge of the Western appellate commercial court;
Shvetsova Larysa Anatoliivna – from the position of the judge of the Kharkiv appellate court;
Tkachenko Tetiana Borysivna – from the position of the judge of the Donetsk appellate court;
Stashkiv Bohdan Ivanovych – from the position of the judge of the Ternopil appellate court;
Poliak Olena Ivanivna – from the position of the judge of the Northern appellate commercial court.
6. The term of secondment of a judge to the Podilskyi district court of Kyiv has been extended
On September 7, 2021, the High Council of Justice decided to extend for one year the secondment of judge of the Avtozavodskyi district court of Kremenchuk of Poltava region Rybalka Yurii Volodymyrovych by temporary transfer to the Podilskyi district court of Kyiv.
7. Equal opportunities – the key to effective work
With the assistance of the Ukrainian and Canadian project “Support to judicial reform” a two-day training on gender approach integration in the organization of work of the secretariat of the High Council of Justice.
During the training was emphasized the need to include a gender dimension in the institutional policy of the judiciary and in all areas of justice, the need to publicly demonstrate commitment to the principles of gender equality, to promote by your own example the standards of fair, equal, gender-sensitive treatment, to prevent indifference or inaction in cases of inappropriate behavior.
Based on the results of the focus group discussions, priority tasks were identified on the way of integrating a gender approach into the organization of the Council's work. Among the planned activities:
- analysis of the HCJ’s gender composition;
- identification of the official responsible for the implementation of the gender approach;
- launching a special section on the official HCJ website to promote the principles of gender equality in the judiciary, create a database of information materials;
- conducting training on gender equality.
8. Procedure of secondment judges to the Irpin city court of Kyiv region has begun
The High Council of Justice, according to the decision of September 7, 2021, No. 1946/0/15-21 announces the beginning of the procedure for seconding judges to another court of the same level and specialization for administering justice, namely 3 judges to the Irpin city court of Kyiv region.
Judges who expressed the wish to be seconded to mentioned courts 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) necessary documents. The list of mentioned documents is here.
9. Oleksii Malovatskyi: We take small steps to the greatest result
Acting Chairman of the HCJ Oleksii Malovatskyi during the open meeting of the Coordinating Committee on the realization and implementation of the digital project in the justice sphere emphasized the importance of the approval by the Council of the Regulation on the functioning of separate subsystems (modules) of the Integrated judicial information and communication system. “The first and main step regarding the step-by-step launch of the IJITS has done”, – said Oleksii Malovatskyi.
Acting Chairman of the High Council of Justice emphasized that standardization of the use of ready-to-use IJITS modules will significantly simplify citizens' access to justice. “Digitization is the future. Due to the change of administrative-territorial structure, the network of courts is changing. If electronic means of communication are not used in the administration of justice, citizens' access to courts after enlargement will be complicated. That is why the electronic court is so important”, – he noted.
Oleksii Malovatskyi emphasized the necessity of cooperation between the HCJ and the Ministry of digital transformation of Ukraine and expressed hope that in the nearest future in the Unified portal of state services "Diia" new services will appear that will give the possibility to receive notifications about appointing a court hearing on the case, court decision, electronic executive documents, to pay a fine for committing an administrative offense.
Acting Chairman of the High Council of Justice called the Ministry of justice of Ukraine to immediately develop and submit to the Parliament’s consideration a draft law, which would make it possible to use electronic executive documents in the IJITS system.
Video recording of the open meeting of the Coordinating Committee on the realization and implementation of the digital project in the justice sphere and the press conference on the occasion of the approval of the Regulation on IJITS can be viewed here.
10. HCJ seconded judge to the Sviatoshynskyi district court of Kyiv for administering justice
The High Council of Justice, on September 9, 2021, decided to second for administering justice judge of the Myronivskyi district court of Kyiv region HAVRYSCHUK Andrii Volodymyrovych to the Sviatoshynskyi district court of Kyiv from September 24, 2021, for the term of one year.
11. HCJ approved redistribution of expenditures between courts for payment of salaries to employees of the apparatus, taking into account the mandatory incentive payments
In order to ensure the payment of salaries to employees of local and appellate courts till the end of 2021 taking into account incentive payments not less than 20% of the salary, on September 9, 2021, the High Council of Justice decided to approve appropriate redistribution of state budget expenditures within courts and territorial administrations of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine in total 229 504,8 thousand UAH due to the reduction of budget allocations in the direction of expenditures “Judicial remuneration fund for newly appointed and dismissed judges”.
12. Organisational committee on preparation and holding of the congress of scholars has been formed
National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, on the basis of which the congress of representatives of high educational establishments and academic institutions will take place, announced by the Decision of the HCJ, notified about the composition of the Organizational Committee on preparation and holding of the congress.
The composition of the Organizational Committee on preparation and holding of the congress of representatives of high educational establishments and academic institutions is here.
13. Staff shortage is one of the cornerstones of the judiciary, – Serhii Bolotin
“One of the cornerstone problems of the judicial system today is staff shortage. The High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine, which is responsible for the appointment, transfer, qualification assessment of judges, has not been working for almost two years. There is a lack of 30 % of judges, apart from that, there is a systematic outflow of judges due to the instability of the legislation. In eight months of this year, 105 judges resigned. The staff shortage increases the workload of current judges and hinders timely and high-quality consideration of cases”, – he noted.
Serhii Bolotin noticed that not only judges leave courts. Qualified employees of the court staff quit due to the low level of salaries.
14. The term for granting judges’ consent for seconding to two courts has been extended
The High Council of Justice, according to the decisions of September 9, 2021, No. 1972/0/15-21 and No. 1973/0/15-21 extended the term for granting judges’ consent for seconding to the Vasylkivskyi district court of Dnipropetrovsk region – till September 19, 2021, and the Luhynskyi district court of Zhytomyr region – till September 20, 2021.