Civil Litigation Efficiency: Criteria and Indicators

Abstract

Civil justice system development requires consistent measures to ensure effective judicial protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, organizations and the State. Evaluating the effectiveness of judicial activity should involve not only expert judgments, but also a more verifiable analysis of criteria and quantifiable indicators. Their application makes it possible to optimize the management impact, rationalize the choice of the most effective procedural means of protecting the rights and freedoms of citizens, and increase the efficiency of procedural activities and the entire system of civil jurisdiction. The paper presents author's approach to understanding the criteria for the effectiveness of court proceedings, offers a system of such criteria, defines basic approaches to the formation of indicators of the effectiveness of civil procedure, requirements for them, and formulated a system of possible indicators that can be applied in practical research. Using the methods of analytical jurisprudence, law and economics, sociology of law put forward the criteria and indicators determining the efficiency of justice, efficiency of procedural law, efficiency of suit, trial and court judgment. The practical implementation of the proposed approaches can allow to take into account not only the organizational and legal parameters of the judicial system, but also the social and economic results of civil litigation, assess its social effectiveness, and stimulate the achievement of the goals of court protection with the minimum costs.