E-court improves efficiency of court proceedings – study
15 November 12:49
The European Business Association, in partnership with the law firm AEQUO, conducted an expert study “Judicial Index” in 2024. This is reported on the EBA website,Komersant ukrainskyi informs.
Commercial courts once again received the highest rating from the professional community – 2.72 points out of 5 possible (2.83 in 2023). Administrative courts are in second place with a score of 2.59 points, and general courts are in third place with a score of 2.5 points. This trend coincides with the findings of the study in previous years.
Judicial Index indicators in dynamics
As noted by the European Business Association, this year’s study shows some slight negative dynamics in the business assessment of the judicial system. The integral indicator of the Judicial Index in 2024 decreased to 2.60 points on a 5-point scale compared to 2.73 points in 2023
In particular, legal professionals’ assessment of the quality of the organization and operation of the judiciary has decreased from 3.13 points last year to 3.05 points this year. The assessment of the impartiality of the judicial system by lawyers has also slightly deteriorated. Thus, 42% of the surveyed professionals encounter bias in the judicial system.
At the same time, the level of trust in the judicial system on the part of company executives remained stable and even slightly increased to 2.19 points (2.17 last year). As a rule, the assessment of managers is significantly lower than that of the legal community
What factors in the work of the courts received the highest scores
The list of factors in the organization and operation of the judicial system that experts rated the highest remains unchanged from last year: accessibility of court decisions, qualifications and professionalism of judges, quality of court decisions and predictability of court outcomes. The worst scores were given to the independence of the judiciary, the timing of court decisions, and the objectivity of the judicial process.
What causes the most negative reaction in the work of courts
The top three factors that negatively affect trust in the judiciary are corruption and bribery in the judicial process, too high a court workload, which leads to a decrease in the quality of court proceedings, and ambiguity of the legislation that the court deals with
The most urgent tasks for the judiciary are to overcome corruption, ensure independence of the judiciary from influence from other branches of government, and ensure that courts adhere to the rule of law.
General conclusions
Commenting on the changes in the judicial system over the past five years, the survey participants state that the e-court has created new opportunities for efficient consideration of court cases. 76% of respondents agree with this. Among the negative trends, 44% believe that the timeframe for consideration of court cases has increased. At the same time, 36% note an improvement in the quality of court decisions.
How the Judicial Index is conducted
The European Business Association has been conducting research since 2013 to monitor and timely identify problematic aspects in the relationship between business and the judiciary. The Judicial Index study consists of three equivalent components: an assessment of the level of trust in the judiciary by EBA member companies’ CEOs, an assessment of the impartiality of the judiciary, and an average assessment of the factors of organization and operation of the judiciary.
The study is based on the analysis of responses of Ukrainian business representatives and foreign investors – both managers and lawyers – to questions about their experience of interaction with judicial institutions. The survey, which was conducted from October 9 to 29, involved 84 lawyers of the EBA member companies.
