Area: Pravosodje
Competent authority: MP
EZU URL: .nan
Initiative ID: 369
Initiative accepted and completed: '2014-09-01'
Initiative classified in EZU: .nan
Initiative forwarded in response: '2014-07-23'
Initiative published: '2014-07-23'
Initiative submitted: '2014-07-22'
Response from the competent authority: 'Response from the Ministry of Justice: With
  regard to the proposed initiative, we would like to clarify that, in accordance
  with the current regime, the administration of justice is regulated by the Rules
  of Court in the chapter entitled "Administration of justice". Parties, their representatives
  and other persons may appear before the court uninvited for the purpose of obtaining
  information relating to proceedings, consulting the case file or public register,
  requesting copies or photocopies of court decisions, issuing official certificates,
  etc., only during office hours (Article 70 of the Rules of Court). The court shall
  not give any information to the parties or other persons by telephone about the
  status of the case or information relating to the proceedings. Judges only receive
  parties and other persons who have been summoned. The judge shall decide independently
  when and which uninvited parties and other persons shall be admitted outside the
  hearing or the main hearing (Article 71 of the Rules of Court).In urgent cases,
  the judge or the registrar or other official of the court shall provide the information
  and services referred to in the preceding paragraph within the court''s business
  hours and also outside the court''s business hours (Article 70 of the Rules of Court).As
  a rule, the court shall not give information on the state of affairs or information
  relating to the proceedings to the parties, their representatives or other persons
  over the telephone. The judge or registrar or other official of the court may provide
  the persons referred to in the preceding paragraph by telephone with such information
  as is necessary for the successful conduct of the proceedings. Before providing
  the information, he or she may verify the identity of the party, his or her attorney
  or other person in an appropriate manner (Article 72 of the Rules of Court).Information
  on the status of the case as it appears in the registry shall be given to the parties,
  their attorneys and other entitled persons by the registrar of the relevant registry
  in the registry office during office hours. In urgent cases, the registrar must
  also provide the information referred to in the preceding paragraph outside the
  court''s office hours (Article 73 of the Rules of Court).The examination and copying
  of files and the monitoring of proceedings are also provided for in individual procedural
  laws. For example, Article 150 of the Civil Procedure Act provides that the parties
  have the right to inspect and copy the files of the litigation in which they are
  involved. Other persons may be allowed to inspect the files only if they have a
  legitimate interest in doing so. Inspection of the case-file is authorised by the
  President of the Chamber when the case is pending and by the President of the Court
  when it is concluded, who may designate another judicial officer to authorise inspection
  of the case-file.  In criminal proceedings, the inspection and copying of criminal
  files is governed by Article 128 of the Criminal Procedure Act (hereinafter: the
  CPC), which provides that files may be inspected by anyone who has a legitimate
  interest. Inspection and copying of the file during the proceedings shall be authorised
  by the authority before which the proceedings are pending, and, when the proceedings
  are concluded, by the President of the Court or by an official designated by him.
  In addition, Article 59(3) of the CPC provides that the injured party, the injured
  party as prosecutor and the private prosecutor shall have the right to inspect and
  copy the files and to inspect the exhibits, and that the injured party may be denied
  this right until he or she has been examined as a witness.However, in the misdemeanour
  proceedings governed by the Law on Misdemeanours (hereinafter: ZP-1), inspection
  and copying are regulated according to the type of proceedings:- in summary proceedings
  (before the misdemeanour authorities), the first paragraph of Article 58 of the
  ZP-1 refers to the application of the provision of Article 82 of the Law on General
  Administrative Procedure, which stipulates that the parties and other persons who
  demonstrate a legal interest have the right to inspect the documents of the case
  and, at their own expense, to copy or reproduce the necessary documents. in ordinary
  court proceedings, the inspection and copying of the case file is regulated by Article
  102 of the CP-1, which provides that the petitioner, the accused and his/her legal
  representative, the representative of the accused legal person, the defence counsel,
  the injured party, his/her authorised representative and his/her legal representative
  have the right to inspect and copy the case file and to inspect the exhibits. If
  the proceedings are pending, the judge presiding over the proceedings shall authorise
  inspection and copying of the files, and once the proceedings have been concluded,
  the president of the court which presided over the proceedings, or an employee designated
  by him, shall authorise such inspection and copying.The purpose of the procedure
  for authorising access to the contents of the files (inspection, copying or copying)
  is by no means formalistic. It is about traceability, which means that the identity
  of the party is verified each time (if he or she is the right party - entitled to
  access the contents of the court file) and the traceability of the operation and
  further use of the data (records, information, etc.) in the file - that is, in a
  file that can be continuously updated with new data, which can also be of a sensitive
  nature (e.g. data on children, illnesses, intimate data from private life, data
  from criminal records, etc.). This system is fully justified in order to prevent
  abuses in accessing the content of files, as evidenced by a very well-known media
  case from a few years ago, when autopsy reports of the bodies of persons in a court
  file were published in the media and the traceability helped to identify the perpetrators
  of the abuse (publication). In principle, the information contained in the court
  file may only be used (at least until the proceedings have been fully concluded)
  for the purposes of the specific legal proceedings.In view of the above, we consider
  that the proposal for simplification is unfounded and hope that we have succeeded
  in demonstrating that there is clearly no formalism in the current arrangements.'
Text file: 369.txt
Title: Access to the court file
URL: https://www.stopbirokraciji.gov.si/pobuda/?st=369
