"e-Court-statistics" statistical analysis tool (AM0061)

Problem Definition

1. What problem does the commitment aim to address?

In Armenia, the justice and the judicial and legal reforms are among primary directions of the Government of the Republic of Armenia. Nevertheless, for years, the reforms have not achieved the goals and targets set before them, in some cases not having relevant effective mechanisms and a toolkit for implementation. In July 2022, the Government of the Republic of Armenia approved the 2022-2026 Strategy for Judicial and Legal Reforms and the Action Plans deriving therefrom. The Action Plan provides for digitising ongoing trials into an integrated system of various electronic platforms. Thus, since all court cases will gradually be examined by an electronic system, it is necessary to simultaneously ensure also the features of collecting and retrieving relevant statistical data. This issue is also addressed by the specified strategy which also provides for introducing a mechanism for publishing reports and statistics summarising the activities of the courts operating in the publicly accessible online mode. Introduction of "eCourt-statistics" unified statistical tool will allow ensuring the presence of a unified statistical database based on the information available in the judicial proceedings and pre-trial proceedings, as well as automatic generation of data. Development of such a platform has an important significance from the point of view of organising the law enforcement processes more clearly and transparently; at the same time, it will allow to avoid undue delays of processes and provide an opportunity to maintain relevant statistics for the purpose of revealing the risks, developing policy correctly. With the OGP-Armenia National Action Plan, the Government of the Republic of Armenia undertakes the introduction of the "eCourt-statistics" statistical tool, which will allow analysing the processes related to the examination of pre-trial and judicial cases (contextual and formal) according to pre-determined statistical indicators (statistic data) and by applying the "open data" format. The analysis of the processes related to the examination of judicial cases will provide an opportunity to the members of the civil society to exercise public supervision over the administration of justice. The generated statistics will be available free-of-charge to the stakeholders (legal community, citizens, researchers, international institutions and sectoral state bodies). In the context of the mentioned statistical indicators, a quantity of judicial cases in specific trials, a total quantity of rendered judicial acts, a percentage ratio in certain types of cases, etc. will be available. Simultaneously, the introduction of the statistical tool needs to be implemented in two directions: in the context of public supervision over the activities of courts and the effectiveness of disposition of cases.

2. What are the causes of the problem?

Currently, the judicial system of the Republic of Armenia does not have a unified electronic system within the framework of which all the judicial proceedings are carried out, and comprehensive and complete statistical data are collected. There are several separate outdated and standalone electronic tools that cannot ensure the full, automated and user-friendly digitisation of trial, in which conditions the statistical tool cannot be introduced and function effectively. It should be noted also that provision is made to update the system of electronic assignment, distribution of judicial cases as well, which may be considered within the context of development of this tool. With respect to http://www.datalex.am/, it does not contain complete pre-trial and judicial statistical information, is complete, user friendly and does not enable a separate or systematised search for the beneficiary of the judicial process (State bodies and judicial system, citizen of the Republic of Armenia, journalist, researcher, etc.) regarding the indicator (statistic data, indicator) he or she is interested in. At the same time, the Judicial Department collects and maintains judicial statistics and the information is available in Excel format, which, however, provides statistical information according to articles and judges, by including information of limited volume. Moreover, detailed information in the mentioned terms is available only for courts of first instance. In addition, no separated statistics on corruption crimes and corruption-related civil cases is maintained, which does not provide an opportunity not only to get a complete picture of the entire chain of examination of corruption cases, but the lack of relevant statistics has been considered problematic as well within the scope of the 2025 Follow-Up Report of the 5th Round of monitoring of the Istanbul Anti-corruption Action Plan of the Anti-Corruption Network for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (hereinafter referred to as “the OECD”), leading to the evaluation of obligations in a number of performance fields as not performed. The absence of the above-mentioned statistical data does not provide an opportunity to make relevant legislative amendments as a result of the analysis and to wage an effective fight against corruption crimes. From this point of view, the introduction of the unified electronic statistical tool will address and resolve the issues specified.

Commitment Description

1. What has been done so far to solve the problem?

The DataLex portal has an infographic section that provides the beneficiaries with information with limited indicators in a non-user-friendly format. At the same time, for the purpose of ensuring the effectiveness, transparency of activities of courts and the accountability thereof before the public, the Judicial Department collects and maintains judicial statistics under the procedure established by the Government. Relations pertaining to the maintenance of judicial statistics have been prescribed by Article 19 of the Constitutional Law "Judicial Code". "eCourt" portal has a statistics page which contain statistical data in Excel format. According to the types of cases, the following data on each court of first instance and judge are published in judicial statistics: (1) number of judges; (2) total number of cases transferred from the previous reporting period at the beginning of the reporting period; (3) total number of cases received during the reporting period; (4) total number of cases completed during the reporting period; (5) total number of cases with proceedings suspended as of the last day of the reporting period; 6) average duration of examination of cases completed during the reporting period, according to the number of sessions; (7) average duration of examination of cases completed during the reporting period, according to time (an hour being the unit of calculation) (including according to the average duration of the stages of preparation of the trial, conduct of the trial and rendering of a judicial act); (8) cases of pre-trial criminal proceedings competed during the reporting period, according to the types; (9) total number of incomplete cases as of the last day of the reporting period; (10) number of judicial acts appealed against during the reporting period, according to the types; (11) number of judicial acts quashed during the reporting period, according to the types. For the purpose of solving the raised problems, a trilateral contract has been signed between the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministry of Justice and the organisation servicing the DataLex portal.

2. What are the solutions we propose?

It is recommended to develop and introduce a tool of judicial system within the framework of e-Justice, which will provide an opportunity to carry out statistical and analytical works on judicial processes, starting from the pre-trial stage. This can be achieved by combining the current electronic systems, and introducing unified electronic communication between the bodies of the sector of justice. Moreover, the software for electronic preliminary investigation must be equipped with tools that provide the necessary data in a formatted form, and in case of absence of such a possibility, the body coordinating the electronic preliminary investigation adapts the system to the requirements of "e-Court-statistics" statistical tool to obtain unified statistical data. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the current statistical lines and statistical cards. In addition, in accordance with international obligations, it is necessary to provide for statistics separated for corruption cases, including statistical information according to positions, according to the distinction between the public and private sectors, information on the property confiscated, and information on corruption crimes committed by legal persons.

3. What results do we want to achieve by implementing this commitment?

As a result of implementation of the above-mentioned processes, the unified electronic statistical tool will ensure the possibility of assessing the effectiveness of the activities of the court, their transparency and accountability before the public. Continuous reforms of the judicial system, inter alia, should aim to: ● guarantee the ensuring of increase of effectiveness of justice and uniformity of judicial practice, as well as set a higher bar of legal certainty in the field of administration of justice, ensure realisation of the goal of more complete observance of reasonable time limits for examination of judicial cases and effective implementation of the principle of saving judicial and legal terms; ● continue the ensuring of realisation of the goal of enhancing the perception of the role of the judiciary among the public and the confidence therein. The introduction of this tool will provide clear information on the progress of judicial cases, increase the transparency of and public supervision over judicial cases and processes, will allow conducting periodic analysis through pre-defined statistical indicators. The tool will make the processes simpler and more transparent, and at the same time it will allow to avoid undue delay of processes. The improvement of statistics will also make it possible to obtain comprehensive information on the entire chain of examination of corruption cases, which will help in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the fight against corruption. In addition to the above-stated, the introduction of the judicial digital statistics tool and the improvement of judicial statistics will help to reveal the problems and legal gaps arisen in the law enforcement practice, the causes, main types of crime, to carry out long-term monitoring of the practice, which will make it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures applied and, as a result, to develop evidence-based and targeted sectoral policy.

Commitment Analysis

1. How will the commitment promote transparency?

Through the introduction of statistical indicators defined on the basis of international practice and consultation, the processes (simplification of the paperwork process, technical notifications), logic and final outputs of the judicial system will be available. This will increase the transparency of and public supervision over the law enforcement system.

2. How will the commitment help foster accountability?

Within the framework of the system, tools and mechanisms will be introduced that will make available all processes related to the examination of judicial cases, including time limits. All the electronic systems and databases operating within the bodies of justice and state bodies will be unified. The tool will greatly improve the accountability of the judicial system and create wide opportunities for public supervision.

3. How will the commitment improve citizen participation in defining, implementing, and monitoring solutions?

The introduction of the digital statistical tool will provide open public access to the activities of the judicial system, and it will be possible to retrieve statistical data based on different criteria. As a result, it will be possible to exercise public supervision over judicial cases and processes, to conduct periodic analysis through pre-defined statistical indicators.

Milestones| Expected Outputs | Expected
Action 1. Study of international practice | The international practice has been studied.
| March 2026

Action 2. 1. Inventory-taking and separation of business processes of existing and introduced electronic systems, assessment and comparison of capabilities for generating statistics and reports 2. Expert works | 1. Inventory-taking of business processes, assessment of statistical capabilities have been conducted. 2. Relevant expert works have been conducted. | December 2026

Action 3. Study of the legislative framework and, where necessary, drafting of relevant legal acts with respect to development and integration of various systems for the purpose of collection of statistics | Preparation of a legislation for introduction of the unified electronic statistical analysis tool | March 2027

Action 4. Development of software solution | Development of software solution based on the analysis conducted Ensuring cross-reading of software solutions with various systems | March 2027

Action 5. Pilot Operation | Testing the system developed, fixing the issues detected | September 2027