We have launched a new information system for more efficient search of decisions, as well as checking the status of proceedings

The new system for searching for decisions contains more than 7,000 decisions issued so far by the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic. In addition to full-text search, it enables efficient searching through a number of other criteria that can be combined in various ways. The result of the entered filters includes, among other things, decisions sorted by relevance in PDF format meeting website accessibility standards. At the same time, several related relevant pieces of information are linked to the retrieved decision, including, for example, whether the decision was reviewed by the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, published in the Collection of Opinions and Decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic, or whether a dissenting opinion was issued to it.

The Act on Courts imposes a separate obligation on the Chancellery of the Supreme Administrative Court – alongside the obligation imposed on the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic – to publish the decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court also on its website. From the very beginning, the institution has been aware that this obligation should not merely reflect a formal need for publication, but that it must be a type of publication that enables anyone (citizens, lower-instance courts, attorneys, public administration authorities, etc.) to effectively reach the desired search result, especially with regard to the primary function of this court consisting in the unification of the relevant decision-making activity.

Perceiving the above, all necessary steps leading towards this goal have been taken over the long term. First and foremost, a measure of the President of the Court was issued, determining the exact scope of decisions to be published on the court’s website, which is broader compared to the legally established scope of decisions mandatorily published by the Ministry of Justice on its website. The next step was the systematic preparation of record sheets for each decision by judicial assistants, in which the most essential information about each decision was recorded, ranging from the wording of the ruling itself, through key statutory provisions, applied case law, to other important metadata necessary for the proper functioning of the information system. The materials prepared in this manner were subsequently recorded and professionally processed by the Analytical Department, thereby ensuring the high quality of the database. Simultaneously with setting up these administrative processes, it was also necessary to pay due attention to building the required IT infrastructure. Precisely the latter, or more accurately, the building of the IT environment overall practically from scratch, and including the creation of the IT infrastructure concept, which defined the target state and the gradual steps to achieve it with an emphasis on security, reliability, and long-term sustainability, was a key step and an essential foundation for the given information system.

When designing the system, it was necessary, among other things, to analyze the available data in detail and to understand the internal processes as well as the specifics inherent to the judicial environment and judicial decision-making as such, also with regard to the efficient use of public resources. The aim was to make maximum use of all correct data from the judicial application “Súdny manažment” (Court Management), record sheets, and other internal supporting files of the Analytical Department. Ultimately, the Chancellery of the Supreme Administrative Court decided on the internal development (and subsequent internal management of the entire) solution, thereby fully utilizing the comprehensive knowledge base and, at the same time, allowing it to build its own know-how. Today, this know-how represents a fundamental prerequisite for the further development of the system and the expansion of its functionalities without dependency on external solutions.

The vision was ultimately to have a modern, functional and reliable tool through which anyone can quickly and efficiently search for the necessary data, a specific decision, or a series of decisions according to the selected criteria. A component serving to track the status of proceedings at the Supreme Administrative Court can also be perceived as a step forward, or a step towards greater openness or transparency, which is intended to represent a simpler and more widely accessible approach to the relevant types of disclosable information for both stakeholders and the general public.

The information system, internally named “Decision Lifecycle”, was not created merely as a tool for publishing decisions with “better search functionality”, but was designed from the outset as a baseline platform for the long-term development of digital services supporting the decision-making activity of the Supreme Administrative Court. It is a solution that aims to grow gradually alongside the institution’s needs and, ultimately, to also create the technological foundation for modern judiciary, reflecting technological trends in society.

In conclusion, it can be stated that our ambition was to create a user-friendly search mask (in both simple and advanced forms) with descriptions of search filters and automatic text or value completion, to prioritize search results by relevance and visually differentiate them easily, to “cleanse” all source data, to test individual functionalities as well as the correctness and functionality of the search according to the specified criteria, to check the scope of the database of published decisions, and to technically prepare the production environment in the best possible way, thus making every effort to ensure that the information system is as complete and comprehensive as possible. Finally, when displaying decisions, we fully reflected website accessibility requirements, thanks to which even disadvantaged groups of people have comfortable access to full and clear information from the decisions of this court.

However, we realize that as with any new solution, certain shortcomings may be identified, and we will therefore be grateful for any feedback from the public, which can be sent to the e-mail address zcr@nssud.sk.