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The protest of judges from all over the country was successful. The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Wednesday recognized problems with the new court information system and suspended its use until December 10. During this time, the State-owned Information Services Company must repair it, taking into account the recommendations of the magistrates.
Thus, the SJC made its first attempt to strike a balance in a situation of acute conflict, having so far preferred to simply ignore dissatisfaction with the system and condemn the critics. The institution faced growing ire from the judges because they were given an extremely cumbersome information system. The most crowded courts have announced that it could even cause the blocking of works.
At the same time, the SJC was forced to implement the system everywhere before September 18. Otherwise, Bulgaria must return more than a million levs to the European Commission, which pays for the construction of e-justice in the poorest and most corrupt country in the EU. The Council of the Judiciary will announce on September 18 that the system is in place everywhere, but will not be used almost anywhere until defects are fixed.
During this time, the warranty period for bug repair will already be running.
The question of the president of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Lozan Panov, remains unanswered: “What guarantees that in three months the” Information Service “fixes a system that is now provoking protests?”
On Wednesday morning, several Sofia judges and attorneys gathered in front of the SJC building to increase the pressure on the staff. They have issued a statement asking that the information system not be used until their problems have been corrected.
The statement was signed by hundreds of judges and judicial officials across the country. The magistrates also have the full support of the Sofia Bar Association, as well as the Justice for All initiative.
The Judicial Community believes that the Supreme Council of the Judiciary (BCC) has not assumed full responsibility for the problems of the system. Judge Bacil Petrov has already appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court against the Supreme Judicial Council’s decision on the introduction of the system and the current action against it.
The protesting judges and lawyers also met this Wednesday with the new Justice Minister, Desislava Ahladova, who chairs the Plenary of the SJC without the right to vote. She explained that she agreed with the proposal to introduce the new case management system in December. According to Akhladova, the system’s short trial period is the reason for the problems in the busiest courts.
Thus, already on Wednesday morning the signal was given that the SJC was giving in to the judges’ protest. SJC representative Boyan Magdalinchev also explained that problems are expected because there are 38 modules in the new system.
The protesting judges say that for hours they tried to issue even an elementary document. They give the example that until now the introduction of a court decision has required three to five clicks, while the new system requires ten times more effort. One of the most annoying things is that the system constantly prompts magistrates and court officials to enter electronic signatures.
Already at the end of August, the Union of Judges of Bulgaria alerted on the problems of electronic justice. However, Veronika Imova, coordinator of the project for the introduction of the system by the Judicial Board of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), rejected the criticism. She urges dissenters to first read the system documentation (2000 pages) before speaking. Chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev suspects that the dissidents are enemies of the state, who want to ask Brussels for criticism in the next report on Bulgaria.
The total value of the project for the introduction of e-Justice in Bulgaria is BGN 6 million, which was provided to the SJC by the European Operational Program “Good Governance”. The project has been ongoing since 2015 and the SJC selected the contractor in 2019.
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