Support to strengthening judicial effectiveness and efficiency in Moldova – Work division in courts

Project description

Although Moldova is on a path of reforming its judiciary, including the optimisation of its courts, Moldovan courts have a high case load and judges often are overburdened. The inefficient proceedings in courts hinge partly on the absence of a system of delegating tasks to clerks and non-judicial court staff. This project targeted this issue by assessing and promoting adjustments in the division of court work, exploring the options of delegating tasks to judicial support staff and other court staff, including the work on drafting verdicts and administrative tasks.

This 17 month project linked up various Moldovan, Romanian and Dutch legal experts and included the following range of activities:

• A baseline assessment on current work division in two pilot courts in Moldova
• Two study visits to the Netherlands and Romania
• Joint working meetings on introducing changes on the work floor geared towards increasing the efficiency of judicial proceedings, streamlining the preparation of verdicts and judicial decisions, and reducing the administrative tasks for judges
• On the job coaching in the two pilot courts on implementing the defined changes
• Interim assessment of functionality of introduced changes to the work in the pilot courts
• Seminar to present the outputs of the two pilot courts and to disseminate the results, including lobbying for re-use.