The Senate (Supreme Court of Latvia) is trusted by 87% of case participants, who are legal professionals. 83% believe that Senate's judgments and decisions are fair, as it was found out in a survey conducted by the Centre for Public Policy Providus. Advocates, prosecutors and representatives of public institutions, who have participated in court proceedings and thus have experience regarding court work, were invited to participate.

Advocates are more critical of the fairness of Senate's rulings, namely 25% disagree with the said statement. Whereas, prosecutors and representatives of institutions have less doubts – 12% and 7%, respectively.

When evaluating the performance of the Supreme Court, the court's attitude towards clients, high-quality Senate’s rulings and case-law are highly valued. Special recognition was expressed to several senators for their contribution to continuing education of judges and other lawyers, as well as to the President of the Supreme Court for his work and clear explanations of court work and rulings provided to the public in an understandable manner.

When asked about the clarity and comprehensibility of Senate's rulings, 40% of respondents answered that this aspect has remained unchanged over the past five years, while 42% recognized that it has improved. At the same time, almost half of legal professionals doubt whether Senate's judgments, especially in civil cases, are understandable to non-lawyers.

The research has highlighted the three most pressing issues in the work of the Senate from the point of view of case participants. First of all, the length of court proceedings – although 31% of respondents believe that the length of proceedings in the Senate are improving, the majority admits that there are no changes and the examination of cases last relatively long, and this refers not only to the final decision, but also to the first stage of proceedings, namely while the decision to initiate or dismiss the case is made. Secondly, although the majority of respondents (59%) believe that the Senate's reasons for refusing to accept cassation complaints are comprehensible and convincing, there are major differences of opinions on this issue. Advocates in civil cases are the most critical in this matter. Moreover, it is pointed out that the information received from the court about the progress of a case in the Senate is not always sufficient.

The case participants have praised Senate’s case-law – 88% of the respondents acknowledge that Senate’s case-law is comprehensible. In general, positive feedback has been received on the case-law database on the website of the Supreme Court, as well as on case-law findings added to legal norms on the Latvian legislation website, while certain ambiguities regarding Senate's case-law are also pointed out.

The second part of the Providus research included a survey of media professionals – editors and journalists. This survey concerned the cooperation of the media with the Supreme Court. The media positively assesses the experience in communication with the Supreme Court, appreciates the court's responsiveness, respectful attitude towards journalists and that it does not refrain from commenting on complicated issues. At the same time, difficulties in covering court cases are pointed out, namely the complexity of rulings, excessive anonymization of rulings and lengthy court proceedings, making it difficult to follow the progress of a case and thus the case loses its relevance.

The Supreme Court expresses gratitude to all legal professionals and journalists for their participation and openness in the assessment of Supreme Court’s performance. The results of the survey are an internal working document of the court. The evaluations and suggestions will be analyzed and, as far as possible, taken into account in improving the efficiency of the Supreme Court, which was the purpose of this survey.

 

Information prepared by

Rasma Zvejniece, the Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 286522