A new era in the Croatian Judiciary
A Monumental Internet Project
Drazen Komarica initiated a creation of software that could regenerate the Croatian Judiciary System
A young American expert. Drazen Komarica. finished the project Judge's web that will resolve the bottle neck at Croatian Courts.
Written by: Berislav Jelinic
Photos by: Tomislav Cuveljak
On Tuesday, 26 June, a non-governmental association Judge's web presented a solution for introduction of information technologies into the Croatian Judiciary System to the Croatian public. It is an extraordinary project that will contribute to resolving of the problem of lack of efficiency of the judiciary administration in Croatia at a high quality level. The stated lack of efficiency represents one of the most serious Croatian social problems.
Numerous data, laws, examples from court practices, but also a majority of useful data on operation of courts, their competency, desirable behaviour at court and working hours are stored within the project called after the name of the association «Judge's web».
In the situation when at a great number of Croatian courts mechanical typing machines are still in usage, finishing of this monumental project in Croatia seems almost unreal. Its finalisation is even more miraculous if we take into consideration the fact that the whole project Judge's web has been created by a small group of gifted Croatian future legal experts guided by a Fulbright scholarship holder. Drazen Komarica, without any foreign consultancy.
Although the project is to take hold the response of the experts taking part in its execution has been fantastic. Many of Croatian judges, attorneys at law and other legal experts have taken part in formation of Judge's web while in judiciary circles the project has become the main theme not only of internal discussions, but also a cohesive element that has pulled together many judges wishing to approve themselves and to affirm themselves professionally in their try to give their contribution to as fast and as numerous usage of Judge's web in practice as possible.
Although it is hart to describe all the high quality solutions offered by Judge's web. as early as at the moment it has shown that there are potentials in Croatian judiciary system that have been waiting for a long time to see a little constructive atmosphere and to activate themselves in elevating the quality of the operation of the whole system.
In concrete terms it means the project that should multiply speed-up resolving of burdened legal subject matters, help in communication among Croatian judges and elevate the quality and the consistency of their work.
By entering at Judge's web judges are able to look at how their Leagues have administered justice in individual cases, how they have heard participants in the proceedings and in such a way fasten and improve their own work
Drazen Komarica, the head of the group of students that has created and executed the functional phase of Judge's web is a young man having his extracts from Zagreb, possessing Croatian and the US citizenship, and has been living in the States with his parents since he was one and a half year old.
Fulbright scholarship holder
At the American Rutgers University he finished the Political Sciences and Historical Studies specialising himself for the area of international political economy and he took a degree challenging the theme of functioning of Croatian courts during the after war period.
As early as in 1994 Komarica was researching problems in operations of the Municipal Court of Zagreb and published an article in the daily papers dealing with the theme under the name «The Court as a technical antiquities museum». In April 1995 he explained his proposal for introduction of information technologies into the Municipal Court of Zagreb to the USAID and two years after he had took a degree he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for research functioning of Croatian Courts after the Croatian War for Independence. After that he gave a several lectures to American diplomatic core members preparing themselves for their mission in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Foreign Service Institute at the American State Department. In those lectures he explained how judiciary system could contribute to the stability of the Republic of Croatia.
Thanks to the Fulbright scholarship he lived a longer period of time in Croatia and spent a month in Vukovar, Vinkovci, Beli Manastir, Sisak, Glina, Gospic. Knin and Osijek respectively. He used his one-month-long stay in each of those towns to familiarize himself with problems judges face in their every day practice. At courts he acted as a trainee. This part of his activities was enabled by the Ministry of Justice. He spoke to judges as much as possible. After those conversations he got the idea to create Judge's web.
«The main idea of the whole project was to enable judges to have a quick and high quality insight into the operation of other courts and judges and to enable them to speed-up their work in such a way. We planned to do that with the help of Internet. By linking to our web site judges from Dubrovnik, Osijek, Korcula or any other place in Croatia may find anything that could help them working in a moment», says Komarica.
By entering Judge's web judges can see how their colleagues have administered justice in individual disputes from all legal branches. For example a judge can see the sentence in a case of homicide with malice aforethought and how participants in case were heard. In addition, he can see all the appeals, decisions reached in cases after submission of appeals, but also decisions of the Supreme Court and even of the European Court of Human Rights in cases that come up to that level. Judges can see very quickly court practices in certain subject matters, laws that are also stored within the web. and through electronic mail they can communicate with one another and consult among themselves about problems or doubts. «With all that judges are going to be more sure at the moment of reaching decisions and to know in advance how individual judgments were treated at the second stage proceedings and at the Supreme Court», says Komarica.
Data for general public
Judge's web comprises a special part dedicated to general public. There you can see very easily which court has jurisdiction over which region of Croatia. For example, you can enter a name of a village in Slavonia into the explorer and in a few minutes Judge's web will show you which court has the jurisdiction for resolving disputes in that region. At Judge's web it is possible to find information on operation of each court: the writing office working hours, ordinary working hours, daily breaks, some rules regarding expected behaviour of clients at court, one can see even the arrangement of offices and rooms at the court ground plan. At this moment a data base bound to proceeding costs, revenue stamp prices etc. is under construction. At Judge's web you can find data on a number of courts that can be supplemented with data about other courts.
«12 students attending finishing courses of the Law Faculty have taken part in creation of Judge's web. Their work has been supervised by judges and other legal experts. They have had multiple benefits from their working in the project since the project was based exactly on examples from the practice that in many cases had no real catch with the theory», says Komarica.
It is of extreme importance to say that Judge's web also comprises complete explanations of judgements and sentences. It is a special help to judges because it directly shows them how, for example, an accused was heard and examined in a case or how crucial evidences were demonstrated.
At Jude's web judges can comment each judgment and/or sentence and see in such a way whether the same judgement or sentence can function for similar cases at other geographical region. «For example, it enables judges from Osijek to see the value of indemnification for a broken arm in a road accident adjudicated by their colleague in Split. Judges can adjust themselves in order to avoid the situation in which these values would differ too much. In addition if someone decides to reach a significantly different judgement or sentence compared to those prevailing in practice, this judge can prepare himself how to give a high quality explanation of his judgment or sentence and how to explain why he decided himself for a different decision contrary to the prevailing practice. All that will contribute to a higher quality level of reaching decisions at courts, consistency of work and a better communications, says Komarica.
One of the more interesting solutions and proposals offered by Judge's web is implementation of a legal pleading form. In concrete terms it means that a statement of claim can be submitted even on a piece of napkin and courts are obliged to accept it. Judge's web has elaborated a proposal for a universal legal pleading form that would make it much easier for judges to perform some part of their work and it would make it quicker. For example, it has proposed implementation of a universal colour for one type of legal pleading, meaning that a statement of claim would have red margins, while the reply to the statement of claim would have blue margins. Classification of such legal pleadings would be easier and it would speed-up a part of legal operations.
American and Canadian Aid
«ln addition to all the stated it is extremely interesting that one of the frequent cases existing in court practices is the situation in which a judge says that a subject matter was waiting for a longer period of time because it has not been mature». It means that the judge does not want to reach a decision regarding that case because he has not faced a similar situation in his practice before. At the same time he might feel afraid to reach a decision that, in case of its cancellation at a higher instance, may ruin his personal statistics and put his career back. Therefore he keeps the subject matter aside and resolves other subject matters in order to better the standard of cases resolved. Cases such the one described will disappear upon the application of advantages offered by Judge's web». claims Drazen Komarica.
During creation of Judge's web the team working on it has been facing many problems «At the beginning of the project a huge problem was entering of data into the data base, since students working on it were familiarizing themselves with information technologies and practice. The way in which we were obtaining data was also a problem. We had to make great effort to determine precisely which village belonged to which municipality. This problem was resolved with the help of the Croatian Post and the Statistic Data Office. But their data were not aligned in every case», says Komarica.
The American Bar Association (ABA / CELLI) started to finance « Judge's web». but the project was 'assets free" very soon. Nevertheless, the team continued to work volunteering with a great help of judges from several courts from different towns. Finishing of the project in the form it has now was enabled by the Canadian and the US Embassies.
«Project for sure has a far greater value than the amount of the price for which it has been finished. When we sum up all the expenditures and costs and when we deduct all those parts of the project that have been performed on the volunteer basis, the project is worth the total of USD 345 thousand and it has been finished for USD 80 thousand. All the participants in the project have mostly volunteered with the exception of information experts that offered their services at a 60% discount. Judges' reactions are very encouraging. They call us from all over Croatia wishing to join us in usage of Judge's web», says Drazen Komarica.
The execution of the project was initiated by a group of young enthusiasts with the approval of the Ministry of Justice with the representatives of which they met several times. It is important to note that the project holders would like to adjust opening of Judge's web to a wider circle of users with the Ministry of justice in details. During the first phase a basic part of Judge's web would be available to judges only. After that, it will be decided when it is going to be available to attorneys at law and other legal experts.
Gift from heaven
Members of the team that created Judge's web emphasise that they are a non-governmental and non-profitable association that has not succeed to find necessary financial assets to finish completely the project yet. The project is functional, but for its full implementation at the national level the
state should set aside some two million of German Marks. In more concrete terms, the costs would comprise a full introduction of information technologies into courts, technical support services and training. Once the project is established, the costs of the team that would work on up-dating and maintenance of the project would be some fifteen thousand German Marks per month. The complete costs amount to only one fifth of costs of some other projects that have been implementing partially into courts for a longer period of time and whose results, for the time being, are far more modest than the results achieved by Judge's web.
Therefore the Government should not be restrained regarding estimation whether it is necessary or not to support Judge's web and in what extent, since it represents an achievement that would be for sure emphasised as a so-called Flag-Ship Project in the developed countries. In this case it is a project in which the Croatian youths and the Croatian intelligence have proved that they can cope with the largest and the most complex challenges and that they are capable of resolving even one of the most painful problems the actual Government is faced with. It is especially worth noting that Judge's web has been brought to the phase of operations without spending a Kuna for extremely expensive foreign consultancy services. We should hope that the Government is going to show readiness and understanding for the project that could help it solve important judiciary problems that the Government get literally as a gift from heavens thanks to enthusiasm of a few students.