Serbia Justice Functional Review

External Performance Assessment > Demand for Justice Services

d. Demographic Differences in Demand

  1. There are also striking demographic differences in demand for court services in Serbia, which cannot be explained by common assumptions. As one might expect, there is a strong relationship between demand for justice services and the population in the court’s territorial jurisdiction.149 However, there is no such relationship between urbanization levels and the litigation rate as shown in Figure 7 below. Thus, the data do not support the common hypothesis that city-dwellers demand court services disproportionately more, nor that city courts are the busiest relatively speaking. To the contrary, the data reveal that some rural and semi-rural areas place significant demand on justice services, while other more urbanized areas have less demand. This also supports the view that some small courts in less urban areas receive much demand.
  1. As expected, there is a strong positive relationship between caseload and incomes in the court’s jurisdiction;151 however, there is no such relationship between income per capita and the litigation rate. Thus, the data do not support the common hypothesis that wealthier individuals avail themselves of court services disproportionately more, nor that the silent and less well-off remain passive to their justice needs. To the contrary, the data reveal that some poorer areas place significant demand on justice services, while other poor areas receive less demand. Courts in some affluent areas receive high demand and others less.152