Külli Luha
Analyst of the Courts Division of the Ministry of Justice
In 2019, county courts saw 32,668 civil matters (11.7% more than 2018) and 39,423 matters of expedited procedures of payment orders (14.9% more than 2018), 15,322 criminal procedure matters[1], including 5,666 criminal matters (3.6% less than 2018) and 6,942 misdemeanour matters (1.8% less than 2018). Administrative courts saw 2,533 administrative matters (2.2% more than 2018).
Figures 1-3 below illustrate the number of criminal and misdemeanour matters, civil matters and administrative matters that were brought before county and administrative courts over the last seven years. The trend lines on the graphs show the change in the workload of the courts during this period.
Circuit courts received a total of 2,867 civil matters (2.6% less than 2018), 1,116 administrative matters (14.4% less than 2018), 1,989 criminal procedure matters (3.8% more than 2018) and 164 misdemeanour matters (17.9% more than 2018) in appeals and appeals against court rulings. Figure 4 below illustrates the change in the number of matters brought before district courts over the last seven years in all types of proceedings with the trend lines indicating the change in the workload of civil courts.
More detailed data on the procedural statistics of the courts of first instance and courts of appeal in 2019 by type of procedure is published on the court website online.[3]
Adjudication of Matters in County Courts: Civil Matters
A total of 31,114 civil matters were adjudicated by county courts, of which 15,276 were adjudicated at the Harju County Court, 3,843 at the Pärnu County Court, 7,237 at the Tartu County Court and 4,758 at the Viru County Court. More than half of the matters adjudicated by the county courts, or 56%, were adjudicated during the action (a total of 17,433 action matters were adjudicated), of which 41.4% were adjudicated on petition. Matters involving provisional legal protection or securing an action constituted 1.6% of the total number adjudicated, the total number of pre-trial taking of evidence matters was 61, or 0.2%, and 141 matters, or 0.5%, involved letters of request of other courts.
In 2019, there were generally no differences in the distribution of adjudicated matters as compared to previous years. Therefore, county courts adjudicated the most matters of the right of obligations (37.3% of adjudicated matters), family law matters (20.4% of adjudicated matters) and matters related to the General Part of the Civil Code Act (13% of adjudicated matters). The remaining 31.2% of matters were distributed between enforcement, bankruptcy, company law, labour law, property law, international legal aid and other civil matters (Figure 5).
The numbers show a circa 20% growth over the last years in the number of obligations law matters, of which the largest number are loan and credit contract matters.
The average length of proceedings of civil matters adjudicated in 2019 was 95 days, including 113 days for the Harju County Court, 79 days for the Pärnu County Court, 72 days for the Tartu County Court and 87 days for the Viru County Court. The average length of the 17,433 civil matters adjudicated in the action was 126 days. The longest matters adjudicated in action are the so-called full-length proceedings. The following table shows the length of adjudication for such matters:
Based on the content of civil matters adjudicated in the action, the longest proceedings were the intellectual property matters (36 matters with an average duration of 340 days) and bankruptcy matters, including recognition of claim matters (163 matters with an average duration of 351 days), right of succession matters (104 matters with an average duration of 322 days) and company law matters (186 matters with an average duration of 312 days). The fastest matters adjudicated in action were family law matters (3,957 matters with an average duration of 103 days) and right of obligations matters (11,612 matters with an average duration of 112 days).
County courts adjudicated 12,870m matters on petition with an average duration of 58 days. Securing an action and provisional legal protection matters were adjudicated with an average length of 5 days (whereas the speed of adjudication differed greatly from court to court, for example the Harju County Court adjudicated these types of matters with an average of 3 days but the Pärnu and Viru County Courts took an average of 13 days). The courts’ letters of request were settled with an average of 14 days and matters of pre-trial taking of evidence were settled with an average of 68 days.
In 2019, the county courts adjudicated a total of 1,319 international legal aid matters (service of documents, collection of evidence, requests for enforcement orders, state legal aid in cross-border matters, international legal aid in family matter matters) with an average adjudication duration of 39 days.
In 2019, circa 14.4% of civil matters were adjudicated through sitting procedure, including 11.2% in the Harju County Court, 12.3% in the Pärnu County Court, 14.8% in the Tartu County Court and 25.2% in the Viru County Court. Substantially, the most matters that used sitting procedure involved family law matters (circa 6% adjudicated matters), bankruptcy law (circa 2.8% of adjudicated matters) and obligation law (2.2% of adjudicated matters).
Paperless procedure was used in 31.2% of county court adjudications in 2019, including 33.9% of the Harju County Court, 34.6% of the Pärnu County Court, 27.1% of the Tartu County Court and 26.2% of the Viru County Court adjudicated matters.
In 2019, a total of 13,141 supervision proceedings were conducted in county courts, of which 49% were supervision proceedings over the activities of the guardian of an adult with restricted legal capacity, 17.9% over the activities of a minor’s guardian, 14.3% was supervision of bankruptcy proceedings and 13.9% was debt release proceedings of natural persons. The following table shows the breakdown of supervision proceedings by type of court:
Adjudication of Matters in County Courts: Criminal and Misdemeanour Matters
County courts adjudicated a total of 15,346 criminal procedure matters distributed as follows: 36.9% were criminal matters (of which 22.4% were submitted for expedited procedure), 28.1% were matters of judges in charge of the execution of court judgments and 28.9% were preliminary investigation judge matters (Figure 6).
A total of 5,689 criminal matters were adjudicated by county courts. 2,275 by the Harju County Court, 825 by the Pärnu County Court, 1,473 by the Tartu County Court and 1,116 by the Viru County Court. More than two thirds (that is 4,111) criminal matters were adjudicated through settlement proceedings (including 670 through expedited proceedings), 1,110 in simplified proceedings (including 569 through expedited proceedings), 72 in summary proceedings (including 36 through expedited proceedings) and 406 in general proceedings. The courts took an average of 226 days to adjudicate general proceeding matters wherein 17.9% of the matters took more than 365 days to adjudicate. The average duration of the 5,283 criminal matters resolved through simplified proceedings was 27 days. The table below shows the number of criminal matters adjudicated through general proceeding and their average duration vis-à-vis volume:
A total of 4,460 matters of a preliminary investigation judge were adjudicated, of which 36.4% were search matters (1,625 search requests), 38.5% were arrest and arrest time limit extension matters (1,718 requests) and 10.6% were freezing assets matters (472 requests). 26.6% of preliminary investigation judge matters were adjudicated using sitting procedure.
In 2019, a total of 658 international cooperation matters (where the majority, or 65.5%, were applications for foreign legal aid and 24.3% were declarations for execution of a judgment of a foreign country permissible) were adjudicated. In 59 matters, issues of the extradition of property or persons were resolved. The average duration of international cooperation matters in 2019 was 24 days.
4,343 matters of judges in charge of the execution of court judgments were adjudicated in 2019 with an average duration of 39 days. 66.2% of such matters were adjudicated using sitting procedure.
County courts adjudicated a total of 6,905 misdemeanour procedure matters: 2,706 in the Harju County Court, 984 in the Pärnu County Court, 1,685 in the Tartu County Court and 1,530 in the Viru County Court. The average length of adjudication for misdemeanour matters was 33 days and for misdemeanour complaints was 61 days. County courts adjudicated a total of 2,087 misdemeanour matters and misdemeanour complaints, which were divided as follows according to content: 73.1% traffic misdemeanours, 4.6% misdemeanours against public health, 4.5% misdemeanours against property, 2.4% environmental misdemeanours and 15.4% other misdemeanours.
In 2019, the county courts adjudicated 4,622 enforcement vases, of which 93.7% used paperless procedure.
Adjudication of Matters in Administrative Courts
In 2019, the administrative courts adjudicated a total of 2,388 administrative matters: 1,262 in the Tallinn Administrative Court and 1,126 in the Tartu Administrative Court. Based on content, the most matters involved law enforcement (34.3% of the adjudicated matters). 13% were tax law, 9.9% population, 6.6% planning and construction and 5% public commercial law matters (Figure 7).
The average length of adjudication for administrative matters in 2018 was 137 days in the Tallinn Administrative Court and 107 days in the Tartu Administrative Court. The average duration of administrative matters was divided as follows:
Content-wise, the longest proceedings of administrative matters were in environmental law (average duration of 343 days), planning and construction matters (274 days) and public commercial law matters (191 days). Proceedings that were shorter than average dealt with public procurement matters (average duration of 49 days) and population matters (64 days). The administrative courts confirmed a compromise in 47 matters, including 13 planning and construction matters and 7 service relationship and enforcement matters.
In 2019, circa 15.9% of administrative matters were resolved using sitting procedure, including 25.3% of Tallinn Administrative Court matters and 5.3% of Tartu Administrative Court matters. Content-wise, sitting procedure was used the most in population (59.1% of the respective category’s matters), public procurement (38.5%) and planning and construction (2.2%) matters. The least use of sitting procedure was in law enforcement matters (2.9% of the respective category’s matters) and ownership reform matters (6.7%).
Paperless procedure was used in 21.8% of administrative matters, including 41.3% of the Tallinn Administrative Court matters and 11.5% of the Tartu Administrative Court matters.
Adjudication of Matters in Circuit Courts: Civil Matters
In 2019, a total of 2,760 civil matters were adjudicated in circuit courts (1,948 at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 812 at the Tartu Circuit Court), including 1,208 appeal proceedings and 1,528 matters of appeals against court rulings.
More than one third of the circuit courts’ substantively adjudicated matters were right of obligation matters (31% of adjudicated matters) and family law matters (15.4% of adjudicated matters). Just like in county courts, the largest number of family law matters were maintenance support matters (circa 44%). The largest number of right of obligation matters were unlawful infliction of damage matters (circa 22%). The distribution of civil matters by content in circuit courts in depicted in Figure 8.
Circuit courts adjudicated civil matters in appeal procedure with an average duration of 162 days (178 days for the Tallinn Circuit Court and 124 days for the Tartu Circuit Court) and in appeals against court rulings with an average duration of 61 days (79 for the Tallinn Circuit Court and 17 for the Tartu Circuit Court). 33 appeal proceedings at the circuit courts lasted longer than 365 days (31 appeal proceedings at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 2 at the Tartu Circuit Court)
7.6% of matters resolved by the circuit courts used paperless procedure, including 8.3% of Tallinn Circuit Court matters and 5.9% of Tartu Circuit Court matters.
Adjudication of Matters in Circuit Courts: Criminal and Misdemeanour Matters
In 2019, circuit courts adjudicated a total of 1,974 criminal procedure matters (1,007 at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 967 at the Tartu Circuit Court), including 450 appeal procedure matters, 1,356 matters of appeals against court rulings and 168 matters initiated by circuit courts.
Approximately one third of the matters adjudicated by circuit courts were matters of a judge in charge of the execution of court judgments (31.7% of adjudicated matters). 28.2% of matters were preliminary investigation judge matters and 27.6% of matters were criminal matters. 8.8% of matters were complaints against the activities of the Prosecutor General (Figure 9).
The average duration of criminal matters in appellation procedure was 44 days (41 for the Tallinn Circuit Court and 49 for the Tartu Circuit Court). The matters of appeals against court rulings were adjudicated with an average duration of 17 days (18 at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 15 at the Tartu Circuit Court). The appellation procedure was used in circuit courts for a total of 240 general procedure matters, which were resolved with an average duration of 62 days (including 131 matters at the Tallinn Circuit Court with an average of 55 days and 109 at the Tartu Circuit Court with an average duration of 70 days).
Paperless procedure was used for a total of 13.1% matters of appeals against court rulings (for preliminary investigation judge matters, state legal aid matters and complaints against the activities of the Prosecutor General). The Tallinn Circuit Court used paperless procedure in 16.3% of matters and the Tartu Circuit Court in 10.1% of matters of appeals against court rulings.
A total of 158 misdemeanour matters were resolved with 79 in both circuit courts. Paperless procedure was used for 48 appeals against court rulings in enforcement matters, including 11 at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 37 at the Tartu Circuit Court.
Adjudication of Matters in Circuit Courts: Administrative Matters
In 2019, circuit courts adjudicated a total of 1,445 administrative matters (645 at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 500 at the Tartu Circuit Court), including 518 in appellation procedure and 627 in matters of appeals against court rulings.
Content-wise the circuit courts adjudicated the most law enforcement matters (32.5% of adjudicated matters). Other larger shares went to tax law (15.6%) and planning and construction (11.5%) matters. Figure 10 shows the administrative matters adjudicated by circuit courts by content.
Circuit courts adjudicated appellation procedure matters with an average duration of 197 days (170 at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 249 at the Tartu Circuit Court) and matters of appeal against court rulings with an average duration of 31 days (32 at the Tallinn Circuit Court and 31 at the Tartu Circuit Court). 9.8% of the appellation procedure matters took longer than 365 days to adjudicate: 4.4% of the Tallinn Circuit Court matters and 20.6% of the Tartu Circuit Court matters. Among the longer appellation procedure matters, the highest number of matters were law enforcement matters (13 appellation proceedings), public commercial law matters (10 appellation proceedings) and tax law matters (10 appellation proceedings).
Paperless procedure was used for 16.5% of circuit court matters, including 26% of Tallinn Circuit Court matters and 4.2% of Tartu Circuit Court matters.
Judge Workload in 2019 Based on Matters Received
In 2019, civil matters were distributed in county courts to a total of 83.1[5] judges: 38,45 Harju County Court, 11.75 Pärnu County Court, 19.1 Tartu County Court and 13.8 Viru County Court judges. Criminal and misdemeanour matters were distributed in county courts to a total of 55.7 judges: 20.1 Harju County Court, 8.3 Pärnu County Court, 13.8 Tartu County Court and 13.5 Viru County Court judges. County courts had a total of 150 judge seats, but give the vacant seats and the resulting suspension of the distribution of matters as well as long-term absences, the proportion of vacant seats in county courts was 7.5% (including 11.3% at the Harju County Court, 4.5% at the Pärnu County Court, 6% at the Tartu County Court and 2.5% at the Viru County Court).
In 2019, an average of 417.4 matters were distributed to judges that adjudicated civil matters in the Harju County Court, 355.9 in the Pärnu County Court, 394.5 in the Tartu County Court and 355.3 in the Viru County Court. On average, Harju County Court judges dealing with offences were given an average of 306.9 criminal procedure matters and 127.6 misdemeanour matters with the respective numbers being 208.8 and 117.1 for Pärnu County Court judges, 299.9 and 135.1 for Tartu County Court judges and 243.2 and 114.1 for Viru County Court judges.
In 2019, administrative matters were distributed to 21.8 judges, including 14.75 Tallinn Administrative Court judges and 7.05 Tartu Administrative Court judges. Administrative courts had a total of 27 judge seats. Considering the vacant seats and the resulting suspension of the distribution of matters as well as long-term absences the proportion of vacant judge seats in administrative courts was 19.3% (including 13.2% at the Tallinn Administrative Court and 29.5% at the Tartu Administrative Court). In 2019, each administrative court judge at the Tallinn Administrative Court received an average of 92.9 administrative matters and each Tartu Administrative Court judge received an average of 165 administrative matters.
In 2019, in appeal procedure and appeals against court rulings, an average of 142.1 civil matters were brought before each judge of the Civil Chamber in Tallinn and 165.9 in Tartu. Each Civil Chamber judge received an average of 127.6 criminal procedure matters and 10.5 misdemeanour matters in Tallinn and an average of 200.2 criminal procedure and 16.5 misdemeanour matters in Tartu. Tallinn Civil Chamber judges received a total of 90.5 appeals and appeals against court rulings and Tartu Civil Chamber judges received a total of 114.8 appeals and appeals against court rulings.
Considering the vacant seats and the resulting suspension of the distribution of matters as well as long-term absences, civil matters were assigned to a total of 19.35 circuit court judges, including 14.45 in the Tallinn Civil Chamber and 4.9 in the Tartu Civil Chamber. Misdemeanour matters were distributed between 12.8 judges, including 7.9 to Tallinn Civil Chamber judges and 4.9 to Tartu Civil Chamber judges. Administrative matter was distributed to 11.1 judges, including 6.5 to the Tallinn Civil Chamber and 4.6 to the Tartu Civil Chamber.
The figure below illustrates the average workload of judges in every type of procedure in 2019 based on the number of matters received:
Proportion of Matters Automatically Distributed to Judges in 2019
All courts of first instance and courts of appeal use the functionality of assigning procedure in the court information system to assign matters to judges. Pursuant to § 37 of the Courts Act and the rules for uniform implementation of the court information system,[6] matters are divided on the basis of a division of labour plan and the principle of randomness. Exceptionally, matters are assigned for manual enforcement for reasons listed in paragraph 15 of the aforementioned legal act. The basic statistics for 2019 show that the vast majority of matters are automatically distributed:
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[1] Background info – an overview of crime in 2019: https://www.kriminaalpoliitika.ee/kuritegevuse-statistika/index.html. Criminal procedure matters are all criminal court proceedings brought before the county courts, which are divided as follows: preliminary investigation judge matters, matters of judges in charge of execution of court judgments, settlement proceedings, simplified proceedings, summary proceedings, general proceedings, administration of coercive psychiatric treatment matters, international cooperation matters and state legal aid matters.
[2] This figure reflects the total number of civil matters submitted to county courts as well as the expedited procedure in matters of e-payment order but excludes supervision proceedings.
[3] See https://www.kohus.ee/sites/www.kohus.ee/files/elfinder/dokumendid/i_ja_ii_astme_kohtute_menetlusstatistika_2019.a.pdf.
[4] The table includes matters in action adjudicated on the merits of the matter (with a judgment) but excludes judgments by default.
[5]The calculation is based on the specialization of judges as well as vacancies and long-term (more than 3 months in a row) absences from work.
[6] See https://kohus.just.sise/sites/kohtu/files/dokumendid/kis_uhtse_taitmise_reeglid_2019.a.pdf.