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Plans (and outcomes) for a more efficient justice: the “PJmP” / “A Closer Justice” Plan 2020-2023
PLANS (AND OUTCOMES) FOR A MORE EFFICIENT JUSTICE:
THE “PJmP” / “A CLOSER JUSTICE” PLAN 2020-2023
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Over the past few years, numerous measures have been taken in order to turn Justice to the citizens and to their needs, adapting the processes and communication channels to the demanding times we live in, without losing focus on efficiency and in a more profitable allocation of resources. The adoption of the large set of measures taken so far, with special focus on 2016, led, right that year, to the approval of a first edition of the Closer Justice Plan (PJmP), which was in force between 3 March 2016 and the end of 2019, a plan that allowed, over time, the implementation and conclusion of 131 new measures that stand out for the contribution they brought in terms of efficiency, but also bringing Justice closer to citizens, making interaction more transparent and agile. This paradigm change dictated an investment in the justice network infrastructure, in the renovation and reinforcement of the computer equipment in courts and registration services, as well as the setup of a disaster and recovery centre. However, the changes were not merely technological and a new way of looking at the Justice System gave place to the “Digital by Default” movement, in such a way that the judicial process and the acts practiced therein are currently, as a rule, of electronic nature. In this context, the conditions were created to extend the information systems of the courts (CITIUS and SITAF) to the high courts, but also to the criminal jurisdiction (from the trial stage), administrative offences (from the moment the records are present to the judge), and to the cases of promotion and protection of children and young peo-
ple in danger (from the entry of the request to open the judicial phase) and, thus, increase efficiency through the case dematerialization. On the other hand, access to CITIUS was provided to insolvency administrators in order to streamline the practice of acts under their responsibility in urgent cases, with less effort and cost, freeing the judicial secretariats from registering documents that would otherwise be sent in paper. It was also for this purpose that efforts were made to improve the interoperability between CITIUS and the support system for the activity of enforcement agents (SISAAE), as well as the automatic integration in CITIUS of information from the inventory platform of the Notary Association. In addition, it should be noted that the support system for the activity of the courts has been increasing its range of functionalities with a view
to modernizing and improving usability, namely, with the creation of an SMS alert system for changes that occur in scheduled due diligences, with the possibility of submitting procedural documents in multimedia format, with an increase in the capacity for uploading documents up to 10MB and with the introduction of automatic character recognition of scanned procedural documents (OCR). All of these measures saved hours of work to the judicial officers, allowing these resources to be allocated to tasks that better contribute to the speed of proceedings. Within the scope of the Closer Justice Plan, online services were also developed to be provide to the citizens. Such services, in addition to making the interaction between the citizen and the Justice friendlier and agile, also contributed to reduce the number of hours that Justice workers spent in fulfilling requests. Noteworthy, due to their relevance and innovation, the consultation of legal proceedings by the parties involved, a service that is currently widely used, and it should be noted that about 60% of online consultations took place at times when the courts were closed; the issuance of the electronic judicial certificate, which currently represents about 30% of the total certificates issued; the order and delivery of the online criminal record, a channel used by more than 20% of companies and more than 10% of citizens who require criminal record and the online renewal of their citizen card, which 4 days after being in operation it had already benefited 1400 citizens. In order to bring Justice closer to the citizen and to promote the use of online services, the Digital Justice Platform (https://justica.gov.pt/) was crea-
ted, where it is possible to access all the services provided and the “Justice Line”, a free telephone line for the provision of general information on the Justice services (where to go, what to do, how to resolve). Still on the path of efficiency, efforts were made to improve the communication of Justice with the citizen, namely, regarding the notifications addressed to the citizens in the payment order proceedings, making more understandable one of the notifications identified as more complex. After analysing the results, it was possible to verify a 50% increase in debt payments related to such payment orders, as well as a 160% increase in the demand for legal aid in payment order proceedings. Finally, a word to refer to the importance of evaluating the work developed during the execution of the PJmP. Regarding the procedural pending, there is a reduction of about 40% in civil actions, between the first quarter of 2016 and the same period in 2020. The disposition time, indicates a decrease of approximately 33%, when comparing the results of the first 3 months of 2016 and 2020. In turn, the clearence rate has also shown "the success of the first edition of the Closer Justice Plan is undeniable, so that on March 2, a new edition was presented - the Closer Justice Plan 20|23.
encouraging results. Nevertheless, the international evaluation by an independent and recognized merit entity, the OECD, was considered relevant to assess the results of the main measures to modernize the plan and build recommendations (available for consultation at https:// read.oecd-ilibrary.org/governance/justice-trans formation-in-portu gal_184acf59-en#page1). In view of the facts, the success of the first edition of the Closer Justice Plan is undeniable, so that on March 2, a new edition was presented - the Closer Justice Plan 20|23. With a universe of 140 measures, it keeps the focus on efficiency, proximity, humanization and innovation. While there are already 17 completed measures, it is worth highlighting the one that enables to recover the PIN of the citizen card, avoiding the need to renew the identification document before its validity ends. It should be noted that it is this PIN that allows access to some of the online services made available during the first edition of the PJmP. Among the new measures in progress and to be initiated in the coming months, mention should be made of those relating to the information system of the courts which, in a perspective of continuity, intend to increase interoperability, namely, with the connection to the enforcement
action databases and the “e-auctions” platform, which will allow to obtain more and better information regarding the identification of the enforced person and his/her assets and greater speed in the sale of goods under the custody of the courts, respectively. The dematerialization of communications is also an objective to be pursued, so it is anticipated that, in the near future, the information system of the courts will be able to communicate with the driver’s individual registration, bank entities, insurance companies and the Bar Association. With regard to services to be provided to the citizen, the intention is to enable the online submission of nationality requests, to increase the means of payment for the online criminal record, to provide automatic dispensers pick up the citizen's card and to develop an immediate expense reimbursement mechanism of expenses for witnesses and victims traveling to court. Measures that, in addition to improving the interaction of citizens with Justice, allow less burden on the Justice officials. The second edition of the Closer Justice Plan, also foresees the implementation of two emblematic measures: the Digital Justices of the Peace, which aims to bring a simpler, more economical justice system to the entire national territory, adapted to promote the resolution of disputes through agreements, obtained both in mediation and through conciliation and the Court + 360, which consists of carrying out a concept proof of the “Court of the Future”, exploring solutions based on the Digital Only paradigm. It is intended an evolution in terms of service, with more automation and increasing self-service options, but also the dematerialization of all paper information at the entrance, the exclusively electronic processing (including the presentation of evidence), the video
collection and the automatic transcription and translation. In terms of the development of the judicial network, the Plan also includes a set of simplification measures that aim to modernize the administrative practices to be developed in the court registries, with the reform of the service and the dissemination of the one stop shop concept in the service to users of the system, in which whoever goes to the courts is served in a single place, regardless of their needs, being subsequently redirected to the area that can provide the desired service in the most appropriate way - Court +. This project, started in the course of the first edition of the Closer Justice Plan, is now being extended to the whole country, with very significant results and a high level of satisfaction from the users of the court registries that already use this mechanism. Regarding the improvement of the communication of Justice with the citizen, the simplification of the language will be extended to a greater number of areas, to favour the transparency and to reduce the trips to the courts and the telephone contacts, in order to obtain additional clarifications. In short, we can say that the new Closer Justice Plan intends to strategically con-
dense and guide justice governance efforts to better serve the citizens, hoping that the Plan's flexibility and its adaptability to the concrete moment of its execution are circumstances enough to make this second edition a successful moment for the modernization of justice.
