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A total of over 1 million electronic court cases have been filed in the Court Case Management System (CCMS). The impressive number was reached in less than 3 years after "Information Services" developed and implemented the Unified centralized web-based court case management system. By comparison, the project which is financed by the European Social Fund through the Operational Program "Good governance" 2014-2020, set a goal 250 thousand cases to be filed in the CCMS until 2023. About 69% of the cases are civil, 28% - criminal, 3% are commercial, and the rest are corporate.
The number of closed cases is nearly 910 thousand, which represents 89% of the total number of cases initiated by the CCMS. Nearly 790 thousand cases were closed within 3 months. The data of the Supreme Judicial Council show that these indicators are higher than those registered in all courts in the Republic of Bulgaria for the period 2017 - 2021. The ratio of appealed and protested cases to the number of closed cases is only 7%.
The CCMS was piloted in 17 courts, including 10 district, 5 regional and 2 appellate courts, and was subsequently implemented in phases to all courts within the scope of the project. At the end of September 2022, the Supreme Court of Cassation also resumed work with the system, following joint efforts of the teams of Information Services, the Supreme Judicial Council and the Supreme Court of Cassation to optimize the system's functionalities in accordance with the specifics of the SCC's work. Currently, all courts in Bulgaria work with the system, except for the administrative courts and the Supreme Administrative Court. The CCMS covers all court case management processes in the regional, district, appellate, military courts, the Military Court of Appeal and the SCC, and before 28.07.2022 also the specialized courts. After their closure, the work on the pending cases initiated in these courts continued successfully in the CCMS with the transfer of activities to the successor courts without stopping the judicial activity.
"Through the CCMS we managed not only to unify the work processes in the court system, but also to introduce uniform rules in the case management, which led to time savings, faster justice process, transparency, publicity and access to justice," 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 staff, as evidenced by the statistical indicators adopted by the SJC for reporting the courts activity. The CCMS provides the ability to work remotely from anywhere in the world through a secure channel accessible via a qualified electronic signature (QES).
The platform contains 19 functional and 19 system modules and ensures full transparency, publicity and traceability in court cases management. It enables cases to be tracked in real time and 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.
Since June 2020 till now, more than 3.27 million electronic court acts have been enacted. More than 10 000 users, including nearly 2 000 judges, more than 4 600 court staff, 3 100 jurors and more than 600 summoners actively use the CCMS. The work of summoners is also supported by the mobile application for the service of papers part of the CCMS.
In September 2022, the CCMS extended the scope of documents published for citizens and lawyers on Integrated e-Justice Portal (IEJP). Currently, it is possible to publish the full set of documents in each case and all cases initiated in the CCMS have their electronic folder in the portal. This allows all parties, citizens and lawyers to have access to their cases without the need to physically visit the court building.
In 2022, the CCMS was integrated with the Unified Electronic Legal Aid System of the National Legal Aid Bureau (NLBA), which allows quick and easy assignment of public defenders.
In the same year, Information Services JSC 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 system 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.