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More than 850 000 electronic cases have been filed in the Court Case Management System (CCMS) since it’s launch. The impressive number was reached in less than 2 years after Information Services implemented the unified centralized Court Case Management System. For comparison, the project financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational Program "Good governance" 2014-2020, had set as a goal not more than 250 thousand cases to be filed until 2023. About 69% of the cases are civil, 28% are criminal, 3% are commercial and the rest are corporate.
At the end of September 2022. The Supreme Court of Cassation resumed work in the system and currently 153 courts are using it with all the available functionalities. The system contains 19 functional and 19 system modules. CCMS covers the district, regional courts, courts of appeal, the Specialized Criminal Court, military courts, the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court, Military-Appellate Court and the Supreme Court of Cassation.
Following the closure of the Specialized Courts in Bulgaria (the Specialized Criminal Court and the Appellate Specialized Criminal Court), as of 28.07.2022, CCMS successfully continues to examine criminal cases initiated by these two courts in the Sofia City Court and the Appellate Court-Sofia, according to the provisions оf the Judiciary Act.
Connected to the optimization of the Integrated e-Justice Portal (IEJP) since September this year, the CCMS has expanded the scope of documents that are published for citizens and lawyers in the IEJP. Currently, the full set of documents for each case is published in the CCMS.
Through the CCMS, we managed to unify the work processes in the judicial system and to introduce uniformed rules for the case management " stated the Information Services` CEO Ivaylo Filipov. According to him, the system significantly optimizes the work process and increases the efficiency of magistrates and court employees. The CCMS provides the possibility to work remotely from anywhere in the world through a secure channel accessible via qualified electronic signature (QES)).
The results show that for the first nine months of 2022, 82 per cent more documents, 77 per cent more electronic court documents and 70 per cent more oral hearings were registered compared to the same period of the last year.
Since June 2020 till now, more than 2.5 million electronic court acts have been enacted. More than 10,000 users amongst which almost 2,000 judges, more than 4,600 court staff, 3,400 jurors and nearly 600 summoners, actively use the CCMS. The work of the summoners is also supported by the mobile application for service of papers, part of the CCMS.
The Court Case Management System ensures full transparency, publicity and traceability at court cases management. It enables cases to be tracked in real time. The CCMS integrates the entire case management process – initiation of a case, random distribution of the judge-rapporteur and members of a panel, conduct of oral hearings, adjudication and annulment of acts, court statistics, judges' caseloads, financial management of the cases, management of summons activity, etc.
This year, Information Services also established a Unified Jury Register (UJR). It ensures transparency and traceability in the selection of jurors and their involvement in judicial processes. A Specialized Information System for Monitoring and Analysis (SISMA) has also been developed and implemented, which allows automated collection and processing of statistical data from the judiciary, including from the CCMS, the systems of the prosecution and investigation services, the National Statistical Institute, etc. This allows the competent authorities to take informed decisions on the reorganization of the judicial map of Bulgaria and to analyze the current state of the judicial structures.
The CCMS is also integrated with the Unified Electronic Legal Aid System of the National Legal Aid Bureau (NLBA), which allows quick and easy assignment of public defenders. Since the end of June 2022, CCMS has sent over 4,000 requests for public defenders electronically to the National Office For Legal Assistance System.