5.
COURT ADMINISTRATION
5.1. General Remarks
If one wants to
strengthen the Judiciary in Bulgaria, it is absolutely necessary to
deal with the court administration also. A good court
administration is the basis of an efficient Judiciary. They are
extricable connected with each other. Various kinds of management
models can be used. The model has to be discussed with the
Bulgarian actors in this field.
Information out of
the Judiciary and the MJELI itself has taught me that the Bulgarian
court administration has a lot of weak components. First of all
there seems to exist a big distance between the Judiciary and the
court administration. It is important to make both parties aware
about their joint responsibility for the efficiency of the courts.
A good court administration ameliorates the whole level and status
of the Judiciary. In good co-operation between the Judiciary and
the Ministry of Justice as facilitator the court administration has
to be taken a close look at.
Secondly something
has to be done about the general quality of the administrative
staffing of the courts. The administrative departments of the
courts are overstaffed, but very much underqualified at the same
time. As a result of this, a lot of work is not handled by the
administrative staff. To say it more clear all kind of
administrative operations take much more time than necessary,
because the administration do not know how to act. This is the
reason that a lot of administrative operations end on the table of
the president himself, because no one is able to take care of it.
This is what one can call delegation from bottom to top. Some
presidents of courts have told me that they can do their
administrative work with at least half of their staff if the
administrative would be qualified.
So a reorganisation
of the current court administration is absolutely necessary. More
qualified members of the administrative staff have to be recruited.
Sitting administrative staff members have to be schooled or
dismissed.
Finally it is
important to describe the administrative procedures, to make a
clear distribution of work, to develop administrative working
models, to make instructions of document handling, etc. These
instructions can be of great help to create an efficient court
administration.
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5.2. Concrete Project Plans
Proposed
In order to
streamline the administration within the courts the applicable
regulations should be revised to make the procedures more flexible
and understanding. Reorganising the administrative departments and
training of the administrative staff should be considered. At the
moment it is the president that is responsible for the court
administration. It should be regarded whether this responsibility
must be exercised by a magistrate or by a professional court
administrator, who will also be the chief of the administrative
personnel. Computerisation of the procedures and of the regulation
of the internal flow of information is of great help indeed, yet it
is not the panacea for the problem. For as far as computerisation
will be considered, it should be seen as an auxiliary, not the
solution. Computerisation must be incorporated in a good court
administration, according to policy plans for the whole courts.
Also it should be taken in mind that at present there is no
software especially developed for handling court administration.
Where computerisation of procedures is considered, designing and
developing of necessary software should be included. Furthermore,
training in this field should be provided in that case.
Concrete actions to
be taken in this respect are:
-
Making an inventory
of the current administration system. At first it should be clear
how the court administration is regulated at the moment and which
rules do apply. In this respect the function and powers of the
Inspectorate must be taken into consideration as well. Part of the
inventory should be an evaluation of the current system. In this
evaluation attention must also be paid to the existing
possibilities for the general public to have access to all
information and the consequences thereof. Furthermore, the system
of the internal flow of information (filing on paper) should be
added to the evaluation. On the basis of the evaluation conclusions
should be drawn on the workability of the current system and
propositions can be made for ameliorations.
-
Reorganising the
internal structures of the court administration. On the basis of
the outcome of the above mentioned evaluation and revision, the
internal structures of the court, for as far as court
administration is concerned, should be changed to a workable
system. It should be regarded whether the overstaffing of the
administrative departments of the courts could be reorganised by
dismissing redundant and not functioning staff. To create a
structured system of administration within the courts and cultivate
responsibility with the administration itself, for example a chief
court administrator should be nominated in each court. The chief
court administrator will be in charge of the administrative
department and will give lead to the daily activities of it. On the
basis of such a model, a structure for court administration can be
built.
-
Establishing a
system for training in court management for presidents and the
chief court administrator. The president as the person who bears
the final responsibility and the court administrator who is the
daily responsible person for the administration should be trained
in the way in which they should shape the court administration,
their respective position in it and their co-operation.. The
division of tasks and power between the president and the court
administrator must be dealt with in a course.
-
For as far as
computerisation is considered, nomination of pilot courts to try
out newly developed computerised systems for court administration
and new ways of court administration must be envisaged. The pilot
courts can be of great help in the fine-tuning of new structures
and soft- and hardware to be developed.
-
Train the basic
administrative staff in professional skills. To overcome the
problem of underqualified administrative staff members, training
should be provided on a basic level. Training should focus on
practical skills, necessary for the execution of the function of
administrative support, such as communication skills, organising
and creating sense of responsibility. Furthermore, job
qualifications should be described and a uniform selection method
for staff members must be developed. Underqualification is indeed a
question of recruitment and selection as well.
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