The main objective of the project was to technically improve the processing of data pertaining to the enforcement of court decisions by providing up-to-date information on enforcement cases and any progress made in this regard.

In order to achieve the objectives of the project, the following steps have been taken:

• the legal basis has been analysed and further developed;
• the requirements defined by the bailiffs have been collected;
• access to other information sources and public registers has been evaluated;
• an analysis has been made regarding the available infrastructure for the development of the software in the Court Administration and the Latvian Chamber of Bailiffs;
• four visits of experience exchange were organised among the Association the Lithuanian Chamber of Bailiffs, the Hungarian Chamber of Judicial Officers, the Swedish Enforcement Authority and the Belgian Chamber of Bailiffs.

The system was developed and transferred to the production environment on 2 January 2012. Through the portal, the user can register an enforcement case in a centralised system and get connected to the executive office of cases, which deals with related activities, such as correspondence, deposits and other written material, as well as perform several other functions.

An ongoing work is taking place in order to increase the portal’s functionality; it has thus been planned to create functionalities that will enable data exchange among several information systems, such as: information systems of commercial banks, vehicle database held by the Road Traffic Safety Directorate, information systems held by the Register of Enterprises, information systems held by the Public Journal of Latvia, registry of the State Revenue Service, the State Unified Computerised Land Register, etc.

The Ministry of Justice and the Court Administration invites bailiffs to adopt the information system in order to optimise and speed up their work by circulating information and orders electronically, reducing this way the administrative costs as well as their workload. Trainings for all bailiffs about how to use the system were organised during the implementation period of the project.

80 % from the total project budget was financed by the European Commission, whereas 20 % was funded by the state budget of Latvia.

Background Information
The Civil Justice programme aims to eliminate the obstacles for the smooth functioning of cross-border civil proceedings in EU countries and thereby to improve the daily life of individuals and businesses by fostering access to justice. The European Parliament and the Council adopted a Decision establishing the Specific Programme 'Civil justice' for the period 2007-2013 as part of the General Programme 'Fundamental Rights and Justice', in order to contribute to the strengthening of the area of Freedom, Security and Justice.

Further information:

• Original Press Release - Court Administration (in Latvian)
• Information about the EC ‘Civil Justice’ Programme - Law Enforcement Records Project - Court Administration (in Latvian)
• European Commission - Civil Justice Programme