Workshops for court staff on caseload statistics held on November 7 and 8, and December 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 15, 2016.
During November and December 2016, statisticians (Natasa Mladenovic and Jasmina Ljubicic) and systemadministrator (Nebojsa Milic) of the Supreme Court of Cassation and members of the SCC Backlog Reduction Working Group (judges Sasa Dujakovic, Branka Jankovic and Zorica Bulajic), supported by the MDTF-JSS Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist and ICT Specialist, conducted a series of workshops on how to improve tracking, recording and reporting data on the work of courts. Court staff involved in implementation of Backlog Reduction Programs and statistical reporting from basic, higher, commercial and misdemeanor courts were primary target groups for these workshops, however a few judges as well as court staff from appellate courts showed great interest and enthusiasm in participating. 409 participants in total took part in 11 workshops held in Nis, Novi Sad, Belgrade and Kragujevac.
Key topics included: statistical reporting of courts in accordance with the Book of Court Rules and SCC requirements – main challenges and means to overcome them; and: court performance measurement as required by the Amended Unified Backlog Reduction Program, CEPEJ, EU accession process, and other special needs.
The feedback received from the participants confirmed that court staff felt neglected in the terms of professional development and involvement in reform processes: they often follow requests coming from “higher authorities”, without proper understanding why particular information is required.
Given this, the Supreme Court of Cassation is determined to continue with such or similar events in 2017, tailor them as per particular needs and identified challenges and broaden the target group to judges, court presidents and other court executives, as these workshops provide excellent forum for peer-to-peer learning and exchange.