In order to collect and utilise and also to accomplish specific objectives, the President of the National Office for the Judiciary (hereinafter: NOJ) sets up working groups to carry out particular tasks.

With activities encompassing analysis, consultancy, proposals, opinions and preparation for decision-making, these working groups are there to help the President of NOJ in discharging duties set out in Section 76 of the Act CLXI of 2011 on the organisation and administration of courts.

The operation of these working groups is also designed to ensure that the key strategic objectives of the President of NOJ are accomplished. Setting up various working groups also helps strengthen the project oriented approach from which efficient working can benefit. In recent years more and more working groups were established both at NOJ and the courts.

The working groups are set up to perform tasks in well-defined subjects including professional, strategic, control, budgeting or other demarcated duties and also to help take up common positions and adopt common stances. They discharge their respective activities on the basis of their own work plan with an objective to attain the objective set out in the resolution of the President of NOJ about their establishment.

The primary objective of the working groups is to ensure that NOJ decisions are based on careful preparation and, thereby, can contribute to the transparency and predictability of the judicial and administrative work of the judicial organisation.

Working groups of NOJ

1) Judicial Mediation Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to strengthen the judicial (court-annexed) mediation inside the judicial system and to work out its integration into the organisational and operational system of courts, to propagate and spread information on the opportunity of mediation.

2) Judicial Integrity Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to work out a program and protocol that ensures the legality, impartiality, integrity, professionalism, and the non-discrimination of judges, judicial employees and the whole judicial organisation and its administration.

Working out provisions that ensure the integrity of judges and judicial employees and the value-centered, transparent and accountable operation of the judicial system, also to explore the reasons and symptoms of hazardous effects that endanger mentioned values and establish methods that parry these effects.

Creating efficient tools to parry the risks of corruption by utilising the existing rules of judicial ethics.

Initiating legislative processes (creation or amendements of legal regulations).

3) Judicial Enforcement Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to standardise the practise of court bailiffs and to ensure the cost-effective operation of the enforcement system by working out decision samples, administrative provisions, preparing legislative initiations, measuring demands for IT and statistical innovations and to participate in the realisation of the aforementioned.

Indicating the case-load and workload data of local and regional court level enforcement cases in the judicial statistics.

4) Timely Criminal Adjudication Working Group (Case Allocation Working Group)

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to review and summarise the administrative methods and workflow  that serve the timely, proportional and qualitative criminal adjudication. To strengthen the trust in courts and the dignity of the judicial profession.

Further purpose of the working group is tospread and improve existing protocols at the program related pilot locations. Creating recommendations in co-operation with the regional courts that serve the effectiveness of adjudication in the areas of case allocation, case-load measurement, administrative control and professional development.

5) District and small courts Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: preparations for setting up the district court system, measuring efficiency regarding district court tasks, particularly at courts which are small in numbers.

6) Child-friendly Adjudication Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to promote the interest assertion of minors, especially children during court proceedings.

Developing an educational system for judges that will ensure the high level and timely adjudication during proceedings affecting or involving minors.

Contribution to the development of informational booklets for minors involved in court proceedings, in accordance with international commitments.

To urge infrastructural developments – with special attention to child-hearing rooms – and also to work out the necessary criteria.

Suggesting legislative initiatives in view of the experiences gained in family and criminal case-law. To form opinions and suggestions on hand of topics that bear special attention about the status and rights of children.

7) Financial, Headcount- and Payroll Management Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to collect experiences and suggestions regarding the implementation of NOJ Instruction No. 5/2013. (VI.25.) on the administration of NOJ. Processing  remarks, reviewing relevant legislative changes leading up a suggestion on the necessary modification of NOJ’s management rules.
 

8)  New Code of Criminal Procedure Working Group (The working group which is responsible for carrying out the tasks in connection with the codification of the new Code of Criminal Procedure)

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to carry out the tasks in connection with the codification of the new Criminal Procedure Code and to participate in the lawmaking process of the codification working group which has been set up within the Ministry of Justice. 

Further task of the working group is to create the work plan and the communication protocol, to form and represent the judicial opinion according to the sessions of the codification working group, and to study and deliver its opinion on the drafts of the committee.

The purpose of the working group is - in coherence with the strategical aims of the President of NOJ - to contribute to the creation of an effective law, which facilitates high level adjudication and will result in timely and efficient judgements, eliminating those provisions of the law in effect which are partially contradictory, inconsistent and work against efficiency.

9)  Press Spokesperson Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to help the network of press spokespersons and press secretaries.

Developing communication between press spokespersons, judges and judicial employees in order to improve the efficiency of the network of press spokespersons, to keep them continuously informed, and to determine guidelines for the long term communication strategy of courts to ensure easier access to them.

10)  Model Rules Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to create model rules which shall be applicable in the administration of courts.

Further aim of establishing this working group is to provide the courts regulatory guidelines on hand of these model rules. Both layout and mandatory content of the regulations are outlined, while the unique nature of each court can also be taken into account.

The professional task of the working group is the creation of the money and value management model regulation, internal control model manual, acquisition model regulation, cost value calculation model regulation, model regulations for utilising and culling excess asset and the model regulation about publishing public information and fulfilling individual information requests.

11) Filing Working Group

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to update NOJ Instruction No. 17/2014. (XII.23) on unified filing regulations, to supervise its heading No. VII. and archive plan, to establish a working method of partial culling, to manage the archives of the regional courts and those of the public notaries and to examine the possibilities of digitalising.

12) Working Group for the Introduction of Developments Subsidised by the EU

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to promote and foster the implementation of EU subsidised developments to the court system.

Creating expert materials for introducing the developments resulted by EU projects, to support the practical implementation and in the end to support the work of the Judicial Department of NOJ.

To give reference points on how to create expert materials and to review them urgently if needed, to give presentations on judicial forums, to take positions in questions arising during the initial or further development, to monitor the indicators of each project and to write proposals on how to improve the results of indicators.

13) Working Group for Image and Sound Recording and Audio-Visual Hearing at Courts

Purpose and tasks of the working group: to establish a system at country level for courtroom image and sound recording and also audio-visual hearing, in order to fully introduce it to the court system by 2017. 

To create a prior feasibility study which will ground the start of a pilot program.