On October 20, the annual Conference of the Supreme Courts of the Baltic States organized by the Supreme Court of Latvia was held, where representatives of the courts shared their experience in solving issues that are topical to all three judicial systems. The central theme of this year's conference was "Efficient Supreme Court: methods of efficiency measurement and improvement". The discussion was led by Aigars Strupišs, the President of the Supreme Court of Latvia.

In the context of measuring the efficiency of court work, issues such as deadlines of court proceedings, the balance between quality and quantity of court work, as well as the statistical data on case review were considered. Representatives of the Supreme Courts tackled in more detail the internal resources of courts, such as guidelines for drawing up court rulings, improvement of competence of judges and support personnel, developments of electronic case management systems. As well as they spoke about external resources for increasing effectiveness of court work, such as guidelines for parties to proceedings and methods of informing the public about court work.

Danguolė Bublienė, the President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania, emphasized that the effectiveness of court work implies both quantitative and qualitative indicators. Therefore, it is important to focus not only on speeding up court proceedings, but also on improving the procedure for reviewing cassation complaints, improving the judgment-writing skills of judges, as well as ensuring more intensive communication with the public. One of the ideas of the Supreme Court of Lithuania for improving communication with the public and promoting public understanding of court work is more frequent publishing of press releases about court cases. In order to implement this idea, the internal mechanism for the preparation of press releases is being developed at the Supreme Court.

Villu Kõve, the President of the Supreme Court of Estonia, highlighted an issue that is characteristic of all three judicial systems, namely the change of generations, which means that it is necessary to pay more and more attention to attracting new people to the position of a judge and to improving the quality of legal education.

At the conclusion of the conversation, Aigars Strupišs summarized that the judicial systems of all three countries face similar issues, therefore the annual conference is valuable for gaining fresh perspectives and ideas. The participants agreed that the society expects a unified approach by each judge and the courts as a whole, as the judiciary is a unified system where courts, judges and court personnel work in synergy.

Within the context of the 30th anniversary of the Conference of the Supreme Courts of the Baltic States, Danguolė Bublienė, the President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania, presented a gift to Latvian and Estonian colleagues – the agreement of the presidents of the Supreme Courts of the Baltic States signed in Vilnius in 1993 to hold the trilateral conference annually with the aim of ensuring a regular exchange of experience, information and ideas.

 

Information prepared by the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court, telephone: +371 67020396