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In its The 2015 EU Justice Scoreboard (the Scoreboard), data for which were collected in 2014, the European Commission notes that the number of incoming cases in Lithuanian courts has been continually increasing since 2013; in 2013, there were 10 cases per 100 inhabitants, thus ranking Lithuania among the 10 top EU Member States with the greatest number of incoming cases. 

A comparison of all EU Member States in terms of the length of civil proceedings shows that Lithuania is among the top five countries with the shortest time needed to resolve civil cases. According to the data presented in the Scoreboard, the time needed in Lithuania to resolve cases at the first instance did not exceed 100 days. Only courts of Luxemburg hear such cases faster than Lithuanian courts.

‘Despite the fact that Lithuania continue to be among the countries with the shortest length of proceedings, assessment of other indicators shows that Lithuanian courts receive more cases than they are able to hear, thus adding to the risk that the length of proceedings might increase. This is conditioned by the exhaustion of human and material resources of the judicial system and the increase in litigious attitudes of people – the wish to resolve their disputes before the court’, noted President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania Rimvydas Norkus commenting on the data presented by the European Commission.

The data presented in the Scoreboard show that Lithuania, as in the previous year, remains among the countries where the annual approved budget (in euro per inhabitant) allocated to the functioning of courts is the lowest – second only to Bulgaria.

The Scoreboard also reviews the efforts of countries to make information available to citizens about their judicial systems and hearing of cases. Lithuania is one of the best countries among the EU Member States which guarantees the best organization of this process, having implemented all the necessary, in the opinion of the European Commission, means of information and electronic communication (courts have their public relations officials, timetables of court hearings and effective judgements are publicly accessible, etc.).

The full text of the Scoreboard is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/effective-justice/files/justice_scoreboard_2015_en.pdf