“The Efficient Court. A Collection of Good Practices” is the title of a publication, which is the result of the several years´ work done by a group of Polish judges. They acted as a part of the Association of Polish Judges “Iustitia”, in co-operation with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. The book contains a series of verified ideas for resolving the problems of the Polish administration of justice. (22-0CT-04)

Since 2002, the Group for the Improvement of the Functioning of the Judiciary has been working as part of the Association of Polish Judges “Iustitia”, in co-operation with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

The Group´s members include over a dozen judges from all over the country, as well as £ukasz Bojarski from the HFHR, who, in the period of common complaints and criticism, made an effort to identify, describe and popularise the “good practices”, which occur within the Polish judiciary.

The Group´s members carry out voluntary work. The judges agreed to participate in the “journalists´ workshops”, met many times during weekends and worked together on consecutive scientific descriptions.

The Group´s aim is to – gather, elaborate, present and popularise good solutions concerning the functioning of courts, the so-called “good practices”.

The “good practices”, described here, function within particular courts, prove to be effective, improve the court´s work, and help to economise time and money. The Group´s aim is to popularise them in such a manner that the verified solutions find their way to all the courts in Poland.

The Group´s work shows that many changes can be introduced right away, independently, without the need to rely upon the Ministry of Justice. All that is necessary for this to happen is imagination and, in the case of chairmen – an economic approach to court management, and in the case of judges – openness towards modern work methods, as well as self-improvement in work and time management.

Several dozens of gathered and elaborated “good practices” are the product of the Group´s work. The Group prepared two publications: the first brochure was published in March 2004, and on 1 October 2004, the Group presented the second publication: “The Efficient Court. A Collection of Good Practices”.

The Group´s actions inspired the activity of many people. The Group´s amassed work was also presented during a few training conferences, organised by the Ministry of Justice. The signals, received by the Group, show that the presented solutions are being implemented.

The Group´s approach is based on the method of small steps – it does not handle great system reforms, but rather issues that are often very small, seemingly insignificant, which, however, combine to create the picture of the judiciary as a whole.

The subject matter, handled by the Group, concerns several aspects of the courts´ activities:

    * The court´s image – the Group answers the question concerning what should be done in order for the court to become more client-friendly (i.e. a client service office, an information shelf at the court, a press office inside the court)
    * Improvements in the court´s functioning – the Group suggests many technical solutions, the implementation of which will speed up and improve the work of judges and courts (i.e. court financial transfers, issuing orders of payment, execution of court fees, a telephone inside the courtroom)
    * Computer science in the service of the court – the Group presents and encourages the use of modern computer science solutions, which prove themselves in some of the courts and are not yet known in others (i.e. modern methods of creating records; procedure and management outlines; computer discs containing indictments; a court computer centre)
    * The court staff – the Group makes suggestions on how to select and train the court employees, so that they will be competent and will help to improve the court´s work (i.e. a contest to determine the court´s employees, internships at courts; training for the court´s staff)
    * Administration of funds at the court – the Group gives specific examples of “simple” savings (i.e. form management, the court caretaker)