Latvian Courts Portal

The aim of the report is to provide policy makers and justice professionals with practical and detailed indicators that will help to better understand the functioning of judicial systems in Europe and beyond, while improving the efficiency and quality.

Key takeaways from this report include:

• On average in Europe, administrative cases are considered in three situations in 741 days, civil cases in 591 days, and criminal cases in 344 days.

• In Europe, on average, 57% of judges are women, and 42% of women are presidents of courts. In 2022, in Latvia, Croatia, Greece, Luxembourg, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia, more than 70% of professional judges were primarily women.

• The total salary of judges is on average 2.5 times higher than the national average salary at the beginning of their career and 4.9 times higher at the end of their career.

• Access to free courts is only available in three European countries.

• The average cost of the judicial system in Europe is 85.4 euros per inhabitant (with 7.31 euros more than in 2020), that is 0.31% of GDP.

Latvia’s progress in the development and improvement of the effectiveness of the judicial system is assessed in several sections of the report. Compared to the 2020 data, in 2022, in general, the efficiency of courts of first instance in criminal cases has improved significantly, including in Latvia. Latvia has also been able to reduce the backlog of civil cases in cases that have been pending for more than two years.

An important part of the report is dedicated to the analysis of the development of Member States in the field of information technology. In 2022, comparing the budget periods 2014-2018 and 2018-2022, Latvia has increased the share of the court budget directly for ICT development from 3.30% to 3.70%, which shows a sustainable approach to regarding the development of information and communication technologies.

In order to identify the main trends in the use of ICT in the field of justice in the member states of the Council of Europe, the data was analyzed in different dimensions, with a particular focus on the use and common development of ICT. Data for 2022 show that Latvia scored 7.57 points in the ICT development index, the fifth highest result. The ICT development index summarizes various results of digitization in the justice system: development indicators, communication with and between courts, courts and case management, etc. The results and the index are calculated from 0 to 10 points.

CEPEJ was established in the fall of 2002, the purpose of its establishment is to promote the rule of law and strengthen the provision of fundamental rights. To achieve the set objectives, CEPEJ implements various activities, one of which is data collection and analysis.

The full version of the report in English is available on the website of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice:

https://www.coe.int/en/web/cepej/cepej-work/evaluation-of-judicial-systems