Estonia
CEPEJ Member: Eneli KIVI
Director, Courts division
Judicial administration policy department
Ministry of Justice
TALLINN
Deputy Member:
Margit LAURI
Adviser
Judicial administration policy department
Ministry of Justice
TALLINN
Estonia - European Cyberjustice Network members (ECN)
Astrid ASI
President, Harju County Court
Rauno KIRIS
State Prosecutor, Internal Control Department, Office of the Prosecutor General
Merit KÕLVART
Service Lead, Centre of Registers and Information Systems
National Correspondent
Margit LAURI
Adviser
Judicial administration policy department
Ministry of Justice
TALLINN
Pilot Courts
Harju County Court
Astrid ASI
Court President
Court of the first instance in civil and criminal matters in Tallinn
Lubja 4, TALLINN
Tallinn Circuit Court of Appeal
Kristjan SIIGUR
Court President
Pärnu mnt 7, TALLINN
Evaluation Exercise
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2022 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2020 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2018 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2016 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2014 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2012 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2010 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2008 Edition
- Estonia: Evaluation exercise - 2006 Edition
- Estonia: Pilot scheme
Events
- Celebration of the European day of justice in 2020 in Estonia
- European Day of justice in Estonia: Administration of justice week from 30th September to 4th October 2019
- Peer's evaluation in Tallinn on 14 and 15 April 2014
- Report - inventory of events organised in the framewrork of the 2011 European Day of Civil Justice (25 October) and Press review (Ajaratve.ge (25/10/2011) - Georgia, Journal online (25/10/2011) - Scotland)
Translations of CEPEJ documents :
- CEPEJ 2002 evaluation report concerning courts
- European judicial systems - Edition 2006
- A new objective for judicial systems: the processing of each case within an optimum and foreseeable timeframe - Framework Programme
- Time management of justice systems: a northern Europe study
- Length of court proceedings in the member states of the Council of Europe based on the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights
Links to relevant Institutions
- Ministry of Justice
- Supreme Court (includes English versions of constitutional judgments)
- Courts
- The Prosecutor’s Office
- Bar Association
- Chamber of Notaries
- Prisons
- The Chancellor of Justice
- The Parliament
- The drafts of legislation (in Estonian, for the public consultation)
- Estonian legal acts (in Estonian, the electronic version of Official Journal)
- Estonian legal acts (English translations)
- Estonian Police
- Estonian Association of Judges
Resources
- Legal texts (Codes, laws, regulations etc.)
Riigiteataja
Translations: Legaltext - Case-law of the higher court/s
Riigikohus - Other documents (e.g. forms)
Practical information: Justiitsministeerium
Forms (in Estonien): Eesti kohtud
Recent developments in the judicial field
July 2018:
· The digital court file software is ready and in use. The court user may see and work with a digital court file via public e-file portal, the judges and court clerks use the digital court files in the court information system. With digital court file it is possible to make full text search, restructure the file, sort the documents and data, export the file into PDF format, make comments, highlight text etc.
In certain type of court cases (for now mainly administrative cases, but also some smaller civil and criminal enforcement cases) the paper file is not formed at all, even for higher court instances. Our goal is to give legal meaning to digital court file in all new civil and administrative cases starting January 1st 2020. But for now Estonia continues with baby steps towards paperfree court system giving legal meaning to digital court file and getting rid of the paper files casetype by casetype.
The judges have been given the laptops and the extra monitors to facilitate working with the digital files. However - printing is not banned in the courthouses and Estonia is not planning to use that kind of approach.
· In July 2018 the biggest court Harju County Court (66 judges) which now works in three different courthouses will move to the brand new courthouse in Tallinn.
- The special mention of the Crystal Scales of Justice has been delivered to the Ministry of Justice of Estonia for the initiative A central Database for Justice (E-File) (16 October 2014)
- 2 July 2013: Main changes have been taken place concerning social guarantees of judges. Since 1st of April 2013, the number of vacation days of the judges from every instance of the courts were diminished to 35 days per year, before that date the vacation was longer and it used to depend from the court instance. Generally all civil servants in Estonia have 35 vacation days per year. But there is still are no requirements or bill of requirements for judges to work a certain numbers of hours every day or month.
The salaries of judges will increase as from 1st of July in 2013 and the salaries of judges will be up to 30 per cent higher than before the reform (3300 euros in first instance courts and 3900 euros in second instance courts, the average salary in Estonia is approximately 900 euros), but at the same time there will be no special judges pension for judges, who will be appointed to the office after 1st of July in 2013. But judges who are already in office are entitled to the special judge`s pension to guarantee their lawful expectations. The main idea of reform was that as a judge receives higher salary now, it is possible to save money and to make voluntary payments into ones pension pillars.
Organisational chart of the system of justice
Collaborative workspaces: