Justice Ministry’s €112m IT systems slow down courts
The Justice Ministry’s €112m IT systems that were meant to speed up court proceedings in fact slowed them down. Last year, the average length of court proceedings increased in all areas, despite electronic communication between courts, lawyers, notaries, and bailiffs. The new IT systems do not work well—they do not support copy+paste or the opening of multiple documents, they store documents in multiple places without reliable notification, judges can’t access court cases from home, and they often crash. Judges keep printing case files as a result. Documents are often delivered to mailboxes at slovakia.sk at the last minute before appeal deadlines. The Ministry has had to return €14m in EU funds for the projects for violations of procurement legislation. The Ministry says it will keep improving the system.
