ZAGREB, 15,h September - As early as 1999 the association Judge's web started to announce judgements and sentences on its web site www,sudackamreza.hr. In such a way a data base of judgements and sentences has been created pursuant criteria that enable easy searching for a judgment - for example pursuant the name of the judge who passed the judgement, pursuant a word form the judgement, pursuant the name of the law and similar .
This project organised by the Judge's web. among other ones, is supported by the Embassies of the USA. Canada. Spain and Netherlands, as well as the OESS. the USAID and the American Bar Association (ABA CELLI) and some other.
A better insight into judiciary operations
The president of the Judge's web. Drazen Komarica, emphasises that it is a non-governmental and non-profitable association whose main purpose is to speed-up and improve excellence of operation of courts with the help of the most recent information technologies and to offer to citizens a better insight into the judiciary operations making judgements and sentences publicly available.
Although Komarica is of the Croatian extraction, he has spent all his life in the States where he took a degree in law at the Rutgers University. He prepares his doctorial thesis from the legal sciences. He has been awarded Fulbright Scholarship for Croatia. In the middle 90-ies he came to our county to study court operations in the regions stuck by the Croatian War for Independence, in Vukovar. Dubrovnik and Osijek.
Komarica says that for the time being there have been quite a lot obstacles for publishing of judgements and sentences on the Internet. It is organised in such a way that judges select personally judgements they like to be announced on Internet sites of Judge's web. Such an approach has been severely opposed by presidents of some courts and some judges as well.
«For example, at the Municipal Court of Zagreb we have been told that such an «arbitrary» usage of judgements and sentences would lead into a confusion and that the Supreme Court should give permissions for judgements and sentences to be announced at the Internet. Neither the Supreme Court has found too much understanding for the project Namely, they believe that they should found a special commission to select judgements and sentences that may go to lnternet» says Komarica. He also emphasis that the association has achieved a very good cooperation with the Municipal Court of Zagreb where some judges are ready to cooperate with Judge's web and they have already selected their judgements and/or sentences for announcement on the Internet.
Incomprehensible judges' resistance
Komarica does not understand judges' resistance to announcement of judgements and/or sentences on the Internet. He notes that activities of Judge's web is supported by the Ministry of Justice and the Minister. Ingrid Anticevic-Martinovic, informed them officially as well that there were no obstacles for announcing of judgements and/or sentences on the Internet. But, adds Komarica, in some countries experiences are far more positive. In such a way he mentions Armenia where he worked on the ABA CELLI Project of introduction of information technologies into the jurisdiction system Namely, in Armenia the project of public announcement of judgements and sentences started to be executes only a few days after it had been presented to their Supreme Court President.
With regard the western countries. Komarica mentions the US example where you can find not only judgements and sentences on the Internet, but the whole judicial proceeding procedure. But the access to those Internet sites is very expensive and as a rule only legal experts are prepaid to them.
The access to judgements and/or sentences of Judge's web site is available, for the time being, only to judges, but that access is free of charge. «lt is only the question of a day when judgements and sentences will be available to all the citizens. The reason is that we are prevented only by technical reasons from enabling all citizens to get an insight into the judgments data base», says Komarica.
A large number of judges do not even know that they can search the judgment data base free of charge. Therefore Judge's web will publish a brochure informing judges how they can research judgments and sentences on their web site.
Judgement data base forjudges free of charge
Komarica states that the advantage of announcement of judgements and sentences is multiple. «lt is of a special importance to many young judges who can see how their colleagues were resolving individual cases from different court levels - the procedure that is of a high importance in standardizing of jurisprudence. Among other things, by enabling an insight into the court practices a gambler's engaging with proceedings that will obviously end unfavourable for certain parties in the proceeding will be discouraged», concludes Komarica.
Hard to reach a list of court interpreters and experts
On their Internet site Judge's web will publish a list of all 1200 court interpreters and 1800 court experts registered in Croatia together with their
references. Komarica says that activities on that project face obstacles as well since the professional associations of court interpreters and experts have refused to give to Judge's web even the list of their members with telephone numbers, although their activities are public.
In Judge's web. they try to find different ways to obtain those data. Names of some court interpreters and experts have been found with the help of the courts where they are registered.
«Many times we have to find registered court interpreters and experts by ourselves, in personal contact, and such a procedure is time and money consuming. For example, we had to engage students that worked over their association «Studentski servis» and contacted court interpreters and experts by phone and asked for the information on their references, foreign languages they spoke, their specialties and similar», says Komarica.
Vjesnik, 16.09.2003.