Commitment: Publication of court decisions on a unified database and creating of the retrieval system
Commitment Description: The court decisions' proactive availability is a significant component of and precondition for a transparent judicial system. Georgia is among those exceptions where the judicial branch of government is involved in implementing the Open Governance Action Plan. Under the 2016-2017 Action Plan of the Open Government Georgia, the Supreme Court of Georgia has developed accessibility rules for the common courts’ decisions, common standards for the elaboration of main directions and principles. After the approval of the rules, the introduction of the general rules for publishing decisions of the common courts has started, together with the necessary activities for improving special website - unified registry of court decisions – www.info.court.ge

Upon recommendations from the civil society and the initiative of the Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF), the 2018-2019 Action Plan of Open Government Georgia entails the publication of the court decisions on the unified database and ensuring their availability, which will support the transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of the judicial system. During the Action Plan implementation, the commitment was taken over from the Supreme Court of Georgia to the High Council of Justice of Georgia. Outcome: A unified database of court decisions has been created
Timeline: Start date - July 2018, End date - December 2019
OGP Thematic Areas: Transparency, Accountability, Innovation and Technology, Engagement
Reporting Period: 2019, Annual
Lead Agency: High Council of Justice of Georgia
During the reporting period, starting from early 2019, in order to improve the transparency of the judicial system and availability of all types of court decisions on a unified platform, the development of a new website has started

In Spring of 2019, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Department of Common Courts, and the Ministry of Finance of Georgia signed a memorandum of understanding, which envisaged developing a common database and search system for the court decisions.

As the original website for publishing court decisions (info.court.ge) was malfunctioning, it was decided to create a new platform – www.ecd.court.ge, currently operating in a test mode.

According to the Action Plan, during the reporting period, the decisions of the current year, of the years 2019 and 2018 by the courts of all three instances are published on the website and a retrieval system for a unified database is activated. The uploading of the archives to the website will start after the approval of the relevant legal act for redaction procedures. The website's full activation depends on different outside factors and is planned for the end of this year.

According to Georgian legislation, the documents published on the website are anonymized to protect personal information. The user can download the court decision in both print and text formats.

• Judicial Acts (All three instances)

Judicial acts of all three instances can be found by their case numbers and the document's barcode.

• Public Announcements (All three instances)

The Public Announcements module enables searching for all public announcements made public to the parties by the court. The public notices can be searched according to the following parameters:

✓ Case Number
✓ Notice Publication Date/Period
✓ Name of the Specific Court
✓ Type of the Public Announcement
✓ Name of the party to/recipient of the Public Announcement

Apart from the parameters listed above, the system includes the notice period. Therefore, this module is fully functioning.

• Court Hearings (All three instances)

The website includes information on the scheduled hearings of the Supreme, Appellate, and District Courts. The court hearings can be searched according to the following parameters: ✓ Case Number ✓ Case Date/Period ✓ Name of the Court ✓ Case Category ✓ Judge Name/Last Name

Apart from the parameters listed above, search results include additional information on the hearing room number and the parties to the case. Therefore, the court hearing module is fully functional.

• My Cabinet (First instance)

One of the website's modules is the webspace for the litigant, called "My Cabinet", which enables the user to see the full information on his/her case in one space. The relevant court issues the username and password for authorization of the module in advance. Currently, the webspace for the litigant is operational for the court of the first instance only. The High Council of Justice of Georgia plans to develop "My Cabinet" for the second and third court instances as well.

According to the Secretariat’s assessment, the commitment is mostly implemented within the planned timeframe, as two milestones of the commitment are not fully implemented: the search module for the redacted court decisions and final documents is created, however, only for the current year, as well as for 2019 and 2018; webspace for litigant is operational, however only for the first instance court cases