Pöördumine

European Commission project "Improving judicial

efficiency and budgeting in Latvia" (24LV15)

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Judicial Council, kindly requests your support for the ongoing project “Improving judicial efficiency and budgeting in Latvia”. The project is implemented by the company "PricewaterhouseCoopers SIA" (hereinafter - PwC), with the financial support of the European Commission by Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (hereinafter - DG REFORM).

The main objective of the project is to provide recommendations for institutional reform of the justice system and develop a statistical methodology for assessing the labour intensity of court cases, and the distribution of personnel in judiciary institutions. The case weighting model will assist the Judicial Council in strengthening a budgeting process and methodology for future improvements. The key objectives of the project tasks include:

i. An analytical report assessing the current situation. ii. Recommendations for institutional reforms to improve the effectiveness of the

operation of the judicial system and use of budget funds.

iii. A new statistical model to evaluate the judiciary’s workload and manage the

budgetary aspects of the justice system.

iv. A pilot implementation of the methodology, including training sessions and a

guidebook on court data collection, methodology and resource assessment.

The DG REFORM has appointed PwC to undertake the assignment and execute the project. The project has started in September 2024 and is expected to conclude in March 2026.

Considering the fact that your role and performed functions are important in the judicial system and in achieving the goals of the project, we would be very grateful if you would agree to cooperate with the contract implementers, including by participating in interviews and workshops, or by providing the data you have at your disposal. You may expect to be contacted by either the Project Manager, Zlata Elksniņa-Zaščirinska [[email protected] / +371 6709440], the Project Coordinator Ramona Daukste [[email protected] / +371 20290776], or a consultant Elizabete Muzikante [[email protected] / +371 29479198].

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the Judicial Council representative Juris Siliņš [[email protected]], the Secretariat of the Judicial Council [[email protected]], or DG REFORM representative Ella Ahmas [[email protected]].

Your cooperation will be greatly appreciated and will significantly contribute to the delivery of high-quality work that will be beneficial for Latvia.

Aigars Strupišs President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Latvia

and the Judicial Council

Signed electronically

THE DOCUMENT HAS BEEN SIGNED ELECTRONICALLY WITH SECURE ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE AND CONTAINS TIME STAMP. THE DATE OF THE SIGNATURE OF THE DOCUMENT IS THE DATE OF THE LAST ADDED SECURE ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE AND THE DATE OF ITS TIME STAMP.

PricewaterhouseCoopers SIA, reg. nr. 40003142793, Marijas street 2a, Riga LV-1050, Latvia, T: +371 6709 4400, www.pwc.lv.

© 2024 PwC. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure.

Council for Administration of Courts (Kohtute haldamise nõukoda)

Riga,

Invitation to share best practices in the European Commission project "Improving judicial efficiency and budgeting in Latvia"

To whom it may concern,

PricewaterhouseCoopers SIA Latvia (hereinafter – PwC) is contacting your organisation on the behalf of the Judicial Council (JC) and Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) of the European Commission regarding the “Improving judicial efficiency and budgeting in Latvia” project, which is currently being undertaken by JC and consultants from PwC. The key objective of the project is to provide recommendations for institutional reform of the justice system and develop a statistical methodology for assessing the labour intensity of court cases, and the distribution of personnel in judiciary institutions. The case weighting model will assist the JC in strengthening a budgeting process and methodology for future improvements.

The PwC team and JC have identified Estonia as a country with important experience in efficient judicial processes, data collection, and case-weighting system and model. Therefore, we would like to gather your knowledge, best practices and experience regarding your system. With this in mind, PwC kindly invites representatives of your institution to participate in a one-hour interview with PwC and JC representatives. During this session, we will discuss the current system of judiciary workload management, as well as the applied case-weighting system in Estonia.

During the interview, we would like to learn about your experience in evaluating the existing judiciary workload, assessing the effectiveness of resource utilisation, implementing statewide time standards for case processing, utilising tools and technology, and applying case-weighting in the distribution of cases and in determining the required number of judges.

Your support and involvement in the project would greatly contribute to achieving its objectives. If any of your representatives are available and interested in participating, we would be grateful for your confirmation. We will then coordinate the details regarding the time, date, and online meeting link.

We kindly invite you to inform us of your representative’s availability to participate in the interview by responding to this email and sharing the contact details of the main contact person with whom to coordinate the interview time and date.

Thank you for considering our request. If you have any questions or should you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact Elizabete Muzikante ([email protected]) or Ramona Daukste ([email protected]).

We are looking forward to and would highly appreciate your possible participation in the project.

Please find attached the Letter of Authorization signed by the Judicial Council in Annex 1.

Yours sincerely,

Raimonds Dauksts

PwC Latvia Director of Advisory