Exchanging experiences and comparing practices on the independence and transparency of courts, communication with the public and the assistance they can provide to parties in the proceedings are valuable for the work of the judiciary, said Acting President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro Vesna Vučković.
She said this at the Conference of Presidents of Supreme Courts of Central and Eastern Europe, in Pristina.
As announced by the Supreme Court, Vučković was the moderator of the "Access to Justice" session, where the panelists discussed the use of technologies that can help parties in court proceedings, such as remote hearings or remote submission of documents.
"Exchanging experiences and comparing practices on the independence and transparency of the courts, communication with the public and the assistance they can provide to the parties in the proceedings are valuable for the work of the Montenegrin judiciary," Vučković assessed.
As it was announced, the panelists also discussed the steps that the courts are taking to help the parties who represent themselves and move through the court system.
"Some of them are brochures or manuals that explain the court system, as well as computer kiosks that can give them answers to questions and forms needed in the procedure," the announcement states.
It is added that the topics included the provision of legal advice to defendants, the courts' permission for non-lawyers to represent litigants and the experiences gained during the coronavirus pandemic, which, it is stated, have improved access to justice.
The announcement states that the moderators of the 14th Conference of Presidents of Supreme Courts were Vice President of the Supreme Court of Slovenia Marijeta Švab Širok, Judge of the Supreme Court of Albania Asim Vokši, President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania Danguole Bubliene and President of the Council for Extraordinary Audits of the Supreme Court of Poland Joana Lemenska.
As it was added, the focus of the other sessions was on the procedures that the courts practice to increase their independence in relation to other branches of government, measures to reduce the number of backlogs, such as continuous trials and mediation.
The focus was also on the ways in which courts communicate court decisions to the public in order to combat inaccurate information in the media and on social networks and models by which courts could use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their work.
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