From strategic documents to action – this was the leading motive of conversation of the Council for the Judiciary and the Judicial Ethics Commission with Chairs of courts, their deputies and Chairs of judicial panels. The meeting of 17 June was organised to inform of two documents approved by the Council for the Judiciary – the Guidelines on Communication of a Court System and the Strategy for Communication of Courts – and to discuss ways of use thereof in work of courts.  

Understanding necessity to develop professional communication between court system and public, both the Council for the Judiciary and the Judicial Ethics Commission updated question on necessity of uniform strategy for communication of courts. Having gathered ideas, cooperating and involving professional adviser for communication, two documents were elaborated, namely, the uniform Guidelines for court system for all institutions represented in the Council for the Judiciary, and  the Strategy for communication of courts, which will be work document for Latvian courts, when developing communication with parties to proceedings, media and public in general.

As the strategy for communication states that communication is an element of work of courts, and its goal is to promote effective operation of courts, attitude, understanding and active communication of Chairs of courts is essentially significant, when implementing the strategy.  Thus, the Council for the Judiciary considered it useful to discuss adopted documents in presence. Ivars Bickovics, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Chairman of the Council for the Judiciary, pointed out that such form of discussions makes work of the Council for the Judiciary more effective, and it should be used more extensively.

Facts are not enough for the judgement of the court, evidence is also necessary. Similarly, to develop reliability of a court, professional work must be supplemented with open and proactive communication, - said media expert Vita Savicka, who gave an advice during elaboration of documents. Dace Mita and Dzintra Balta, representatives of the Judicial Ethics Commission, stressed that the goal of the approved documents is to encourage courts to communicate, and one of the most important novelties envisaged is to establish a spokesperson in each court, who will communicate with journalists on court rulings.     

Veronika Krumina, the Chair of the Department of Administrative Cases of the Supreme Court, Daiga Vilsone, the Chair of Riga regional court, and Iveta Andzane, the Chair of Bauska district court, shared their previous experience of communication. They concluded that open communication is a difficult task, but it is paid off with better understanding of journalists, and, respectively, the public about work of courts.  

Representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Court Administration and the Judicial Training Centre also participated in the meeting, and it was important, because these institutions will provide support to courts, when implementing strategy for communication. 

 

See Guidelines on communication of court system (in Latvian language) here

See Strategy for communication of courts (in Latvian language) here

 

Information prepared by

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

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: 67020396, 28652211