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From the moment a case is registered, a visitor comes to court, and up to the issuance of a writ of execution or explanation, the overall picture of the court's perception by society is formed. A significant role in these processes belongs to court staff, whose challenges have long required careful analysis.
This was stated by President of the Supreme Court Stanislav Kravchenko during the presentation of the Green Paper on the Functioning of the State and Patronage Service in the Judiciary of Ukraine, a study conducted by the NGO Agency for Legislative Initiatives within the framework of the project "Ukraine Good Governance Initiative: Empowering Policy Making for Social Progress" with the support of Switzerland.
Stanislav Kravchenko expressed his gratitude to the Agency for Legislative Initiatives for the research and attention to the urgent challenges in the activities of representatives of the state and patronage service in courts. The results of the study provide a general idea of what is happening in the courts and will help to find ways out of the identified problematic situations.
According to the President of the Supreme Court, the primary problem in the judicial system in the current military realities is the temporary occupation of territories by the aggressor state. This has led to the secondment of judges and court staff located in these territories, changes in the jurisdiction of the respective courts, which has resulted in an uneven workload on the court network. A serious challenge will also be the restoration of damaged, looted and destroyed court premises after de-occupation.
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The second problem is ensuring the operation of courts in the frontline areas that are under constant shelling. "We are actively using the new opportunities introduced at the legislative level: holding court hearings via video conferencing, using electronic communication tools, etc. At the same time, court employees still have to be at their workplaces, risking their lives. In this context, we need to talk about mechanisms for additional social protection of court employees located in the frontline and border regions, as well as about the employment of court employees who have been forced to stop working," Stanislav Kravchenko stressed.
The President of the Supreme Court also drew attention to the legal status of judicial assistants, who are currently classified as part of the patronage service. In his view, judicial assistants should also be recognized as civil servants and provided with the corresponding social guarantees. He also suggested that, at the legislative level, it would be appropriate to consider granting certain advantages to court staff—particularly judicial assistants—in the judicial selection process.
In conclusion, Stanislav Kravchenko summed up that the overall situation with the functioning of the state and patronage service in the courts will not change until the issue of proper funding and salaries is resolved. The SC President assured that the Supreme Court will support all initiatives to improve the regulation of material support of courts and salaries of court staff.
As noted by the moderator of the presentation, First Deputy Chief of Staff - Head of the Department for Analytical and Legal Work of the Supreme Court Rasim Babanly, the key issues for the normal functioning of the judiciary are those related to the organisational support of the judicial process.
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The survey conducted by the NGO Agency for Legislative Initiatives among judiciary staff made it possible to identify the current state of court administration, understand the direction for further development, and determine how to address existing problems and improve the functioning of the judiciary.
The role of civil society in any democratic state should be constructive, Rasim Babanly emphasised, so conducting research based on the study of the real state of affairs is an important step for the development of state institutions.
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Svitlana Matviienko, Executive Director of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives, noted that it is difficult to overestimate the importance of people who ensure the functioning of the courts through their daily work. She expressed her belief that one of the main aspects of the public sector's activities should be to restore trust in the justice sector and raise the social status of people working in the judiciary. Therefore, the aim of the study was to provide real recommendations for development, not just a passing assessment.
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The results of the study, summarised in the Green Paper on the Functioning of the State and Patronage Service in the Judiciary of Ukraine, were presented by Karina Aslanian, Head of the Rule of Law Unit at the Agency for Legislative Initiatives.
"The functioning of the state and patronage service in the judiciary, especially in the courts of first instance and appellate courts, has long been in need of systematic analysis. Attention to court administrations, which ensure the continuity of the judicial process, has been fragmented and mostly limited to responding to current challenges. Instead, court staff members organise court operations on a daily basis, are responsible for record keeping, communication with citizens, and maintain the administrative stability of the judicial system," the speaker noted.
The Agency for Legislative Initiatives conducted the research from February to June this year. The purpose of the study was to form a comprehensive picture of the functioning of court administrations and to develop recommendations based on its results. The study was based on a survey of over a thousand employees of the courts of first instance and appellate courts (civil servants and judicial assistants) from all regions of Ukraine, and an in-depth interview method was used. An important indicator in the profile of the respondents is that 62.5% of the surveyed court staff have more than 10 years of experience in courts.
According to the survey, the main challenges faced by the courts are:
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All of these phenomena have a negative impact on employee motivation and quality of work.
In addition, respondents noted that they often had to provide funding for their institutions at their own expense. Thus, 696 people indicated that they bought paper and stationery at their own expense, 424 respondents had additional financial costs to refill cartridges for work equipment, 231 people bought furniture and equipment on their own, 218 sent correspondence at their own expense, 175 people made repairs in their offices, 61 incurred other losses (243 people did not have additional costs to ensure their work at their own expense).
Regarding the effectiveness of the state and patronage services in courts, Karina Aslanian said that in general, court staff consider the functioning of the state and patronage services to be quite effective. Among the factors that most reduce this effectiveness are low salaries, insufficient material and technical support, insufficient motivation and engagement of employees, excessive bureaucracy, inefficient management and organisation of work in courts.
Many respondents noted that the material base of the courts is in a critical condition, and many institutions do not have adequate network access, shelters or data protection systems. This creates additional risks for both employees and citizens who apply to the courts. 78% of the premises, according to the survey, are in poor condition.
In addition, the existing problems have been exacerbated by Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine: there are courts that have been completely destroyed, the workload is increasing due to a decrease in human resources, martial law affects the psychological state of employees, etc.
Taking into account the identified problems, the study contains proposals for their solution, in particular:
Karina Aslanian summarised that the Green Paper under discussion covers the main problems and ways to solve them. Further work is planned on the White Paper, a study that will describe in detail the actions to be taken in each of the areas to address the identified problems in cooperation with the judiciary.
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Viktor Kapustynskyi, Chief of Staff of the Supreme Court, stressed the need to develop a general strategy for achieving priorities in the staffing and organisational support of courts, which could be used by court administrations. Without an understanding of strategic perspectives, the risks of inefficient administration will become a reality.
The Chief of Staff of the Supreme Court also noted that there are problems with the legal regulation of state and patronage service. There is no unified approach to the classification of staff positions and job duties due to blurred criteria. This has predictably led to inequality in remuneration and difficulties with staffing. "Without a reboot of the very philosophy of the approach to positions - flexible, fair, and based on functionality - we will not be able to retain specialists and build sustainable personnel solutions, especially with low salaries," Viktor Kapustynskyi is convinced.
He emphasized that not only should the general basic principles of civil service be observed, but also a tailored policy regarding its implementation within court administrations should be enacted, as explicitly provided for by the Law of Ukraine “On the Judiciary and the Status of Judges.”
Viktor Kapustynskyi also focused on the positive and negative experience of using electronic record keeping with duplication of documents in paper forms. Only now, the updated Concept of the UJICS for the first time defines the electronic form of court cases as the main one, with the possibility of using the paper form only in certain cases. The creation and processing of documents in electronic form allows for faster document logistics and avoids unnecessary budgetary costs.
"These systemic problems already indicate the need for change. Therefore, proper administration in the courts today requires not only point changes, but also a systemic rethinking of approaches to management and staffing," the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Court said.
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Regarding the problematic issues of remuneration, member of the High Council of Justice Oleksandr Sasevych noted that when providing legal opinions on draft laws, the HCJ is focused on ensuring the interests of court staff. He also praised the creation of the All-Ukrainian Association of Court Employees, which allows representatives of the judiciary to disseminate common messages in the public sphere.
As Oleksandr Sasevych explained, in light of the current challenges, the HCJ is trying to take into account incoming requests as much as possible. First of all, the HCJ responds to issues related to damage to courts as a result of hostile shelling in order to restore their work.
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Taras Neshyk, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the High Qualifications Commission of Judges of Ukraine, Maksym Pampura, Interim Head of the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, and Tetiana Fulei, Head of the Department for Research on Judicial Proceedings and Scientific and Methodological Support of Judicial Education of the National School of Judges of Ukraine, also joined the discussion of the outlined challenges in the functioning of court administrations.
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Volodymyr Kravchuk, judge of the Supreme Court in the Administrative Cassation Court, noted that the way out of the problems discussed is to optimise the number of cases considered by the judicial system through out-of-court conflict resolution and the use of the latest technologies to perform organisational and technical functions. This will help to save resources that can be used to raise salaries and purchase material and technical equipment. "It is necessary to implement solutions that will not only be effective today, but will also work in the coordinates of the intellectual and digital future, taking into account the savings of public funds, time of litigants and ensuring the resolution of disputes," the judge summarised.
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The participants of the event also discussed issues arising in their work in an open dialogue format, including: remuneration; insufficient material and technical equipment; a human-centred approach to work organisation; uniformity in staffing and regulatory workload, etc.
The link to the Green Paper on the Functioning of the State and Patronage Service in the Judiciary of Ukraine will be added later.
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