The CEPEJ organised in Athens and Thessaloniki a training activity dedicated to the analysis of judicial data, as part of the joint EU-CoE project “Supporting the reduction of backlog in the First Instance Courts of Athens and Thessaloniki.”

These activities brought together, in each court, the president and the team responsible for monitoring the project (comprising judges and court registry staff). Participants were able to discuss CEPEJ’s data collection system, but above all the application of relevant indicators for monitoring the reduction of the backlog as an essential tool to aid decision-making within the courts.

Furthermore, the workshops provided an opportunity to discuss concrete examples regarding the presentation of the collected data and the analysis of the performance of the various courts. The discussions highlighted the importance of having reliable statistics and the need to know how to interpret the data: what does this reveal about the functioning of the courts, what improvements are possible, what preconditions must be met, and how analysing the statistics can contribute to a better understanding of court performance as well as to the reduction of the backlog. These activities brought together, in each court, the president and the team responsible for monitoring the project (comprising judges and court registry staff). Participants were able to discuss the CEPEJ’s data collection system, but above all the application of relevant indicators for monitoring the reduction of the backlog as an essential tool to aid decision-making within the courts.

The data collection already completed at the Thessaloniki court will enable concrete measures to be identified, whilst in Athens the data collection cycle is due to be finalised in the coming weeks. Furthermore, the use of a harmonised working definition of the backlog of cases developed as part of the project in line with the CEPEJ methodology will facilitate data comparisons between courts and, in the long term, help to improve the reliability of national statistics.