COURT PERFORMANCE Does size matter Overview Are smaller

COURT PERFORMANCE Does size matter?

Overview Are smaller courts inefficient? n Are bigger courts n serving as highly specialized units or n working like inflexible dinosaurs? n Austrian findings on length of procedures and CEPEJ’s benchmarks… n Does size matter? n

Netherlands : Average Productivity

Netherlands : Productivity per branch

Netherlands : Size matters! According to productivity: Courts smaller or bigger than 300 FTEs are less productive n And in Austria ? n

Statistic analysis n n n Analysis of length of proceedings – factors and measures Background: People complain most about length of proceedings and difficult wording of decisions – results of opinion poll Background: The KSV – a private institution of creditors which is one of the big players found out that a limitation of proceedings with one year could save 1 billion Euro per year

Austria: Length and size in “C”

No relationship between size of court and quick solution of cases

AT: Size scaled per score I (Clearance Rate, Efficiency, Disposition Time)

AT: Size scaled per score “C” (Clearance Rate, Efficiency, Disposition Time)

No relationship between workload of court and quick solution of cases

COURT PERFORMANCE Size does not matter at all! What else…?

Factors

Factors and Measures I n Experts: Deeper analysis showed, that most of work is dedicated to the same experts, overloaded n Solution: Internet database on experts and interpreters – transparency, spread the workload – knowledge of special expertise

Factors and Measures II n Judges change during the proceeding: Judges often applied for another post after a very short period of time n Measure: Judges are not appointed for another position before having served at least 18 months

Factors and Measures III n Mutual legal assistance: n Measures: Translations of forms (Intranet) n Translations of relevant provisions (Intranet) n Direct contact between courts within EU n