Seminar with the Magistrate Judges on the Monitoring Results

On 26 and 30 August, 2010 the Institute of Law and Public Policy together with Agency “Expertiza”, the monitoring executive company, organized in St. Petersburg and Perm respectively seminars to discuss the results of the monitoring and the “Recommendations to Improve Access to Justice for the Poor and Vulnerable Parties of the Civil Proceedings”. The seminars were attended by the Justices of Peace and the court clerks. The seminars were also joined by the representatives of the judicial community of both regions.

Seminar in St. Petersburg were also attended by: Irina Lodyzhenskaya, president of the Leningrad regional court, Irina Podnosova, a member of the Judicial Council of Perm Region, Vladimir Yakovlev, chief of Magistrate Department of the Leningrad Government. Among the participants of the seminar in Perm were: Vladimir Velyaninov, president of Perm regional court, Tatyana Margolina, ombudsmen of Perm region, Irina Bochenkova, chair of the Judicial Council in Perm region. The seminars in both regions were conducted by the experts of Agency “Expertiza”: Elena Bogdanova and Maxim Timofeev in St. Petersburg, and in Perm – by a leader of the working group Luybov Ezhova. Both sessions were opened by a director of the Project Olga Sidorovich.

The seminars have shown that the judges in general have a positive attitude towards the conducted monitoring; and have found it enriching. The judges have asserted that the efforts to provide legal aid through legal aid network have to be intensified. They have also identified a need to conduct a series of trainings to improve their communications skills while interacting with the poor and vulnerable.

Vladimir Velyaninov concluded that the monitoring showed generally high professional level of the court hearings and observation of fair trial standards. The drawbacks, indentified by the monitoring, are mostly a result of the co-called “human factor”, which should also be carefully addressed to bring closer adherence to the international standards. During the discussion a number of valuable information about the monitoring and the Recommendations emerged, nuances geared to them were ascertained, which will be included in the subsequent elaboration of Recommendations.