EstoniaCEPEJ Member: Eneli KIVI

Adviser, Courts division
Judicial administration policy department
Ministry of Justice
TALLINN

Deputy Member:
Margit LAURI
Adviser
Judicial administration policy department
Ministry of Justice
TALLINN

Estonia - European Cyberjustice Network members (ECN)

Astrid ASI
President, Harju County Court 
Rauno KIRIS
State Prosecutor, Internal Control Department, Office of the Prosecutor General
Merit KÕLVART 
Service Lead, Centre of Registers and Information Systems

National Correspondent

Margit LAURI
Adviser
Judicial administration policy department
Ministry of Justice
TALLINN

Pilot Courts

Harju County Court
Astrid ASI
Court President
Court of the first instance in civil and criminal matters in Tallinn
Lubja 4, TALLINN

Tallinn Circuit Court of Appeal
Villem LAPIMAA
Court President
Pärnu mnt 7, TALLINN

Evaluation Exercise

Events

Translations of CEPEJ documents :

Links to relevant Institutions

Resources

Recent developments in the judicial field

July 2018:

· The digital court file software is ready and in use. The court user may see and work with a digital court file via public e-file portal, the judges and court clerks use the digital court files in the court information system. With digital court file it is possible to make full text search, restructure the file, sort the documents and data, export the file into PDF format, make comments, highlight text etc.

In certain type of court cases (for now mainly administrative cases, but also some smaller civil and criminal enforcement cases) the paper file is not formed at all, even for higher court instances. Our goal is to give legal meaning to digital court file in all new civil and administrative cases starting January 1st 2020. But for now Estonia continues with baby steps towards paperfree court system giving legal meaning to digital court file and getting rid of the paper files casetype by casetype.

The judges have been given the laptops and the extra monitors to facilitate working with the digital files. However - printing is not banned in the courthouses and Estonia is not planning to use that kind of approach.

· In July 2018 the biggest court Harju County Court (66 judges) which now works in three different courthouses will move to the brand new courthouse in Tallinn.

  • The special mention of the Crystal Scales of Justice has been delivered to the Ministry of Justice of Estonia for the initiative A central Database for Justice (E-File) (16 October 2014)
  • 2 July 2013: Main changes have been taken place concerning social guarantees of judges. Since 1st of April 2013, the number of vacation days of the judges from every instance of the courts were diminished to 35 days per year, before that date the vacation was longer and it used to depend from the court instance.  Generally all civil servants in Estonia have 35 vacation days per year. But there is still are no requirements or bill of requirements for judges to work a certain numbers of hours every day or month.

The salaries of judges will increase as from 1st of July in 2013 and the salaries of judges will be up to 30 per cent higher than before the reform (3300 euros in first instance courts and 3900 euros in second instance courts, the average salary in Estonia is approximately 900 euros), but at the same time there will be no special judges pension for judges, who will be appointed to the office after 1st of July in 2013. But judges who are already in office are entitled to the special judge`s pension to guarantee their lawful expectations. The main idea of reform was that as a judge receives higher salary now, it is possible to save money and to make voluntary payments into ones pension pillars.

Organisational chart of the system of justice

 

 

 Calendar of the forthcoming meetings 

 Activity programme

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 CEPEJ was talked about

CEPEJ

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