Court Files Research Articles

Access to justice in Albania and EU policies

Abstract Access to justice is a fundamental element of the rule of law and a cornerstone of justice. Access to justice is the constitutional guarantee that enables individuals to have their violated rights protected. Governments must guarantee the right of every individual to address the court or other bodies of public administration. The right of access to the court in order to oppose an act of the public administration bodies is an autonomous fundamental right and an element of due process. This principle closely relates to another principle guaranteeing justice and democracy in society, which is the principle of the rule of law. Albania has not yet adopted a law that provides for the vital minimum; calculation of financial insufficiency threshold by considering only the income of a person rather than the necessary and obligatory living costs that really need free legal aid. National and international acts provide for Access to Justice, and the onus remains on the government to provide this right to its citizens. In 2022, the number of courts in Albania dropped significantly with the new judicial map, which significantly reduced the access of citizens. Why reduce the number of courts? This led to the increase in the stock of court files and the failure of judges to try cases within the legal deadlines. Albania should reflect without further delay and increase the number of courts, taking an example from other developed European countries, so that citizens may easily go to the courts

The concepts of a deportee and deportation in Lithuanian during the period of Soviet occupation: legal, ideological, administrative and social aspects

The subject of the article is the phenomenon of population transfer organized by the Soviets – deportations. The aim is to analyse and deconstruct the concepts of a deportee, deportation and exile using insights and methods of different scientific disciplines (sociology, history, law). The phenomenon of Soviet deportations is viewed from the perspective of a variety of sources and through examination of different source groups: Soviet sources of criminal law, administrative documents of the Lithuanian Communist Party, criminal court files and files of deportees, diaries and memoirs of the deportees themselves. The main question raised by the article is whether the legal status and actual situation of a deportee differed from that of a political prisoner. Could there a strict distinction be drawn between these two groups of repressed people in the Soviet system? In what circumstances the legal and factual situation of a “deportee” and “political offender” was similar?

COVID-19 lockdowns and children's access to justice: An interrupted time series analysis of Moroccan court filings

Morocco's national lockdown was enforced between March 21st and June 10th 2020 in response to the spread of coronavirus. Restriction of civil space was not fully extended to the judiciary which had to transition to virtual sessions. To prepare for future pandemics and disasters, it is crucial to understand how well court systems across jurisdictions especially in low- and middle-income countries managed to function and protect children's access to justice under the constraints of stay-at-home orders. To investigate the effect of the national lockdown on children's access to justice in Morocco, this study employed interrupted time series analysis of publicly available court filings (N = 77,335) pertaining to child protection from January 1st to December 31st 2020 spanning the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods. Results showed that lockdown measures hampered children's access to justice and is associated with statistically significant and substantial deceases in the number of cases heard by the courts across all filing types. The interrupted time series model estimates that average cases per week dropped by 199.5 for penal filings, 1180.3 for civil filings, 942.5 for complaint filings, and 358.1 for report fillings during the lockdown relative to the pre-lockdown period. While the percentage of cases with recorded delays mostly increased, the average case length decreased except for civil filings which saw a significant increase. The substantial susceptibility of civil cases to lockdowns might be precipitated by the need of individuals to petition the court for a hearing. Evidence suggests that the courts adjudicating child protection cases struggled to maintain operations during the national lockdown, and indicates the need for stronger disaster preparedness and an integrated child protection system to increase the judiciaries' resilience and children's access to justice in future emergency and disaster events.

Effet du genre des victimes parmi les consommateurs de pédopornographie et les auteurs de viol : étude exploratoire et résultats préliminaires

This exploratory study compares the distinctive characteristics of individuals who have consumed child pornography and those who have committed rape. The sample consists of 212 men who have reached the age of majority and have been convicted of a sexual offence. All were followed up in 2022 for therapeutic guidance by the Centre d’Appui Bruxellois. Of these 212 men, 48 had been convicted of child pornography consuming and 100 of rape. Socio-demographic, criminological, victimological and psycho-diagnostic data for all participants were extracted from the court files. This comparison offers crucial perspectives for the development of prevention strategies and therapeutic guidance specific to these sub-groups of sexual offenders.

Praktyczne aspekty zajęć typu B (praca z aktami) podczas szkolenia wstępnego aplikantów sędziowskich

The article is devoted to one of the methods of conducting classes during the judicial initial training at the National School of the Judiciary and Public Prosecution, namely working with court files and pre-trial proceedings files (type B classes). The subject of the article is related to broadly understood didactics and teaching during the judicial initial training. The article discusses in detail the issue of proper selection of files for the classes, as well as the proper preparation of lecturers and judicial trainees before the start of the classes. However, the main emphasis is placed on presenting the proper course of classes, the methodology of conducting classes and the measures that facilitate more active participation of trainees in the classes. The article also explains how training materials (guidelines) should be prepared, what they should contain and whether they can be shared afterwards. In addition, it comprehensively indicates the skills that judicial trainees should acquire after the classes considering the future work as a judge.

Akta Okręgowego Sądu Ubezpieczeń Społecznych w Bydgoszczy z tymczasową siedzibą w Toruniu z lat 1960-1975 w perspektywie badawczej. Postulat archiwizacji akt

The article presents the remaining files of the Regional Court in Bydgoszcz Division of Labour and Social Insurance with the temporary residence in Toruń, operating in the years 1960–1975. The court files are currently stored in the archives of the Regional Court in Toruń and are at risk of destruction due to their classification as non-archival documentation. However, according to the authors, these files have a unique research value because they illustrate multiple aspects of the functioning in the reality of the Polish People’s Republic in the indicated period. For this reason, they can be an excellent source not only for micro-historical research but also for those based on egodocuments. The ultimate goal of the presented text is therefore to prompt the archival authorities to rethink the decision regarding the valuation of the above-mentioned files and to draw attention to the value of individual case files for science.

National Report on Automation in Decision-Making in Civil Procedure in the Czech Republic

The paper focuses on the issue of automated decision-making in civil proceedings. First of all, attention is given to procedural institutes that direct and facilitate automated decision-making, in particular the digital court file and the legal framework of videoconferencing equipment, without focusing on electronic service of documents, which should be a separate paper. Asingle case of legal regulation of automated decision-making in the form of an electronic payment order is then analyzed (cf. Section 174a of the Code of Civil Procedure). For each of these fields, an analysis of digitalization to date is given, which is followed by a consideration of further developments. It also outlines the limits encountered by the use of modern technologies and the potential risks proposed adjustments.

Viešųjų bausmių taikymas vagims Vilniaus pilies teisme (XVIII amžiaus antrojoje pusėje)

The aim of this article is to discuss the practice of administering public punishments to thieves in the court of Vilnius Castle in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s (GDL) central voivodeship in the second half of the 18th century. The aim is to find out to what extent this practice complied with the laws that were in force in the state at that time and to what extent it reflected the humanisation postulates of criminal law that were spreading in the 18th century. The study is based on the court files of the Vilnius Castle Court stored in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives. The Third Statute of Lithuania, approved in 1588, and its provisions regarding the crime of theft still remained in force in the second half of the 18th century. This legal code provided for death, mutilation and flogging for those convicted of theft. In the second half of the 18th century, 36 thieves (all men, one of whom, Kazimieras Jančiauskas, was punished twice) were sentenced to public punishment by the Vilnius Castle Court. The most frequent punishment (49%) was flogging (18 cases), in some cases with the additional punishments of banishment from the city (8 cases) and branding (2 cases). Ten thieves (27%) were sentenced to death, which, as is common in such cases, had to be carried out on the gallows. Nine thieves (24%) were sentenced to fixed-terms (3 to 10 years) or indeterminate (life) prison sentences, to be carried out outside the GDL in Kamjaneć-Podilśkyj. Thus, in cases of theft, the Vilnius Castle Court applied rather severe punishments, basically referring to the relevant norms of the Third Statute of Lithuania, and also, apparently, partly following the tradition of dealing with such cases (in cases where the punishment of flogging was imposed instead of the death penalty). An exception was the use of imprisonment, which was not provided for in the laws of the GDL, but in this case it was only episodic as it was applied in a single sentence in 1782 and originated from the regulation issued by the Permanent Council.Instead of corporal punishments (mostly the death sentence), the philosophers of the Englightenment era proposed the use of imprisonment which would allow to realise the newly defined concept of the repressional punishment – the resocialization of the offender, as well as to implement the principles of proportionality of punishment to the crime committed and the utility of punishment (by using the convicted person for labour). These principles were largely absent from the Vilnius Castle Court’s sentences in the theft cases (except in one case). It is indeed the case that the Court sometimes did make reference to the defendants’ possibility to reform themselves; however, it did not arise from the ideas of Enlightement. The main objectives of punishment still remained the restoration of justice and prevention of crime. As many as 23 out of the 36 convicts (64 per cent) were to be eliminated from society to varying degrees (10 were to lose their lives, 8 were to be banished, 5 were to be sentenced to life imprisonment); therefore it is not possible to talk about resocialisation in this case. The principle of proportionality of punishment was also apparently not implemented when in similar cases the convicted received a different number of lashes. All this can probably be explained by society’s attachment to its own law (in particular to the Third Lithuanian Statute) and to a judicial practice which got established throughout centuries.

Neporočene matere med normami in prakso

In the Habsburg Monarchy, the civil rights of illegitimate mothers and children were primarily regulated by the Austrian Civil Code of 1811. Under this code, illegitimate children did not enjoy the same rights as legitimate ones. Nevertheless, the illegitimate father was obligated to provide for them. The extent to which this progressive principle in Austrian law was practically implemented remains uncertain. This study investigates the frequency with which illegitimate mothers pursued legal recourse when fathers refused financial responsibility for their children. Additionally, it examines how often these mothers successfully obtained paternity recognition. The paper addresses these inquiries by analysing one hundred preserved custody court files from the District Courts in Rakek, Lož, and Cerknica between 1899 and 1945, alongside other relevant civil law documents.

Alkohol in kri v Milićih jeseni 1914

During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Army, in cooperation with its auxiliary units (Shukor), committed numerous crimes against the civilian population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The orders and instructions issued by the High Command and the War Administration represented the basis for judicial and extrajudicial killings. The procedure before the summary court was utterly simplified. Soon, however, even this was no longer compulsory. Instead, the independent application of the “law of force in war” (Kriegsnotwehrrecht) without the involvement of a judge was left to the discretion of the individual commander. After the war, Captain Alfonz Svetek, who served as a stage commander in Milići in the autumn of 1914, was accused of ordering many executions of Bosnian Serbs. The documents from the court file reveal the gruesome methods and the number of executions he decided on as a true master of life and death.

Characteristics and situational aspects of seafood fraud: a comparative crime script analysis

Seafood fraud is a global concern. High-value products with a diversity of species, production methods and fishery origins provide a business environment that is both conducive to criminality and financially lucrative. However, there is scarce empirical evidence on the nature of seafood fraud. This study aims to increase the understanding of deceptive practices in the seafood industry, the crime commission process and to identify possible intervention points. Ten case studies that had resulted in successful prosecutions were analysed using performed crime scripts to understand the actors, resources, processes, fraud techniques, conditions and the payment, sale and distribution of illicit products through legitimate supply chains. The crime scripts for each fraud were created using open-source intelligence, including media sources, publicly available court filings and company records. Similar to other white-collar offences, fraud opportunity was facilitated by leveraging existing resources, relationships and industry reputation to enable and conceal fraudulent practices. In all cases, fraud was perpetrated by senior management, undermining internal control mechanisms. Other fraud enablers included the availability and pricing of substitute products, lack of end-to-end traceability and the inability of supply chain actors, including consumers, to detect fraud. Also notable was the extent of employee involvement, so this paper considers impediments to external disclosure, particularly for migrant workers. The study enriches the food fraud literature by using crime script analysis to understand preparation, execution, and opportunity structures of seafood fraud. By emphasising the nature of fraudulent activities in specific markets, rather than solely focusing on perpetrators, it offers a more comprehensive approach to understanding environmental and situational influences. These insights, scarce in the current literature, are vital for shaping effective intervention strategies.

Interpreting intercepted communication: From talk to evidence

This paper examines the multi-layered translational process of intercepted conversations which appear as evidence in court files in the form of translated wiretap records. The translational challenge here is to transfer the multimodal content of a spoken text in the source language into a written text in the target language. Based on audio data from 17 original intercepted communications and case file documents from a Swiss criminal investigation, the multimodality of the resulting hybrid translational action is explored. In this paper, the process of interlingual decontextualisation and recontextualisation of intercepted communication is examined from the bottom up. The analysis shows that there are different levels of contextualisation that must be considered to achieve a fuller picture of the meaning of a wiretapped conversation.

“Yugoslavia is worthless . . . you can get neither sugar nor kerosene.” Food Supply and Political Legitimacy in the Slovene Part of Yugoslavia, 1918–1924

Abstract The new states that were established in the autumn of 1918 presented themselves as something new and better. Not only were they supposed to be the embodiment of the “national yearnings” of the formerly “oppressed nations” of the Habsburg Empire, but they were also meant to be more democratic and it was promised that their administrations would work better and their economies would flourish. In short, they were to be a decisive break with the imperial past. However, the new nation-states often could not deliver on these lofty promises, and, as a result, their legitimacy began to erode rather rapidly. In this context, the inability to quickly improve the food supply played an important role. In the Slovene part of Yugoslavia, the inadequate supply of basic foodstuffs, rationing, and increasing prices made the already volatile situation worse, as parts of the population began to grumble, protest, and yearn for the Habsburgs, looking across their northern and western borders. Police and court files, district captains’ reports, and various other sources indicate that after the proclamation of independence the mood of the population quickly soured, and that the legitimacy of the new state was often questioned.

Preliminary analysis of more than 60 pickleball noise consultant reports

Over 60 consulting reports authored by over 30 different US and Canadian consultants have been gathered from municipal agendas, court filings, and HOA members. The reports are analyzed with respect to tools, metrics, and criteria used to make findings and recommendations to city officials, HOA Boards, and lawsuit litigants. The reports range greatly in length and purpose, many with sound meter data, excerpts from municipal ordinances, and specifications for noise mitigation including setbacks, full enclosures, barriers, and equipment recommendations. Particular attention is given to the consultant’s choice of sound meter metrics and the attention or lack of attention to the impulsive nature of pickleball noise and applicability of ANSI Standard 12.9 Part 4. When a local ordinance is referenced, we examine whether the consultant limited the report to provisions specifying a decibel limit and excluded comment on the general nuisance and plainly audible standards that are often present. Anecdotes are drawn from the data to identify best practices and worst practices of the consultants and their reports. This paper may be useful to consultants in planning their future pickleball studies; useful in deciding whether to refer these projects to a more experienced pickleball noise boutique firm; and/or useful to attorneys in recognizing the challenges of using the consultant report in the litigation setting.

Prawnicy tylko dla Żydów. Konsulenci z okręgu Wyższego Sądu Krajowego w Katowicach

The article is devoted to the issue of consultants, an institution introduced in the Third Reich to represent Jews in legal matters. Some of the Jewish lawyers excluded from the German bar became consultants. The article presents the legal regulation, the reasons for its issuance and its effects. Based on the personal files of three consultants from the district of the Higher National Court in Katowice, the procedure of admitting them and the conditions of their activity were presented. On the basis of court files, the manner in which they conducted their work in criminal cases was analyzed and assessed.
 A significant amount of anti-Jewish legislation was passed in Germany after Hitler seized power. Some of the newly introduced regulation also targetted lawyers of Jewish origin, whose professional activities were hindered, and eventually banned. In 1938 Jews were definitively removed from the German bar. At the same time, it was ensured that Jews would be provided with legal assistance and represented by consultants, i.e. lawyers of Jewish origin. There were clearly fewer consultants than Jewish lawyers (several in the districts in which individual higher national courts operated). Their admission was discretionary. According to sparse findings in the literature, consultants were treated adequately by the German courts and were not hindered in their access to court files, contact with clients or the possibility of submitting lawsuits. Three examined cases of consultants from the district of the Higher National Court in Katowice indicate that they enjoyed similar freedoms while performing their functions in the courts, as described in the literature. In their daily activities, however, they had to struggle with difficulties of an administrative or factual nature, which were a manifestation of discrimination and bans against Jews. Based on these three cases, it could be concluded that they were admitted to consular activity due to positive opinions among the population, the judiciary and the Gestapo, as well as their patriotic attitude during the First World War and during the Silesian Uprisings. Their exemplary professional conduct, war decorations, and even injuries sustained on the front of the Great War did not prevent the consultants from sharing the tragic fate of European Jews.

Effet du genre des victimes parmi les consommateurs de pédopornographie et les auteurs de viol : étude exploratoire et résultats préliminaires

This exploratory study compares the distinctive characteristics of individuals who have consumed child pornography and those who have committed rape. The study sample consists of 212 men of legal age and who have been convicted of a sexual offence. All were monitored in 2022 for therapeutic guidance by the Centre d’Appui Bruxellois. Of these 212 men, 48 were convicted of child pornography consumption and 100 of rape. Socio-demographic, criminological, victimological and psycho-diagnostic data for all the participants were extracted from the judicial court files. This comparison offers crucial perspectives for the development of prevention strategies and therapeutic guidance specific to these sub-groups of sexual offenders.

Comparison of risk of recidivism among sexual offenders with and without sexual preference disorders using the STATIC-99R instrument.

The STATIC-99 instrument is one of the tools used for the assessment of the risk of recidivism, in line with the actuarial approach. One of the risk factors indicated by the scientific literature as having the greatest significance is sexual preference disorder. The aim of the study was to verify whether sexual offenders diagnosed with sexual preference disorders have a higher risk of recidivism. The study also aimed to present, for the first time in Poland, a quantitative scoring of individual risk factors in STATIC-99R and their prevalence, allowing for the verification of the theoretical validity of the STATIC-99R instrument in the analysis of the population of sexual offenders in Poland. The study material consisted of 100 court and penitentiary files of perpetrators of crimes against sexual freedom from 11 Polish penal institutions and remand centers. We used the STATIC-99R to evaluate each case. The distribution of the individual STATIC-99R risk factors in the population of the Polish sexual offenders is presented. The diagnosis of sexual preference disorders had no influence on the total STATIC-99R score but was associated with its individual factors. It can be concluded that the theoretical validity of the STATIC-99R tool is also relevant to the Polish study population and may be used in clinical practice.

Incidence, Disclosure, and Risk of Corporate Litigation: Insights from Federal Court Filings

Incidence, Disclosure, and Risk of Corporate Litigation: Insights from Federal Court Filings

A retrospective study of traffic offenses associated with driving under the influence of drugs in China

Objective This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and pattern of traffic offenses associated with driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) in 31 provinces of mainland China. Methods Traffic offenses were extracted from the nationally representative court file disclosure website. Drivers convicted of traffic offenses associated with DUID were included. The monthly percentage change (MPC) in rates was estimated by fitting negative binomial regression models to assess the time trends. Moran’s I was used to determine the correlations of DUID-related rates among surrounding provinces. Results In total, 896 individuals convicted of DUID offenses were identified (April 2007 to March 2022). Of these, 769 individuals were involved in traffic crashes, and they killed 629 people. Regarding the types of drugs, 638 used amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS; methamphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, amphetamine, and tenamfetamine), 104 used ketamine, 104 used opioids (heroin, morphine, methadone, codeine, and tramadol), 20 used caffeine, 4 used tetrahydrocannabinol, and 1 used gamma-hydroxybutyric acid. The offense trends among overall drug users (MPC, −1.1; p < .001) declined from 2014 to 2020. The trends also decreased for DUID-related traffic crashes (−1.5; p < .001) and deaths (−1.7; p < .001) during the same period. Except in three provinces, ATS-related offense rates were higher than opioid-related offense rates. Ketamine-related offense rates showed a significant positive correlation among the surrounding provinces (Moran’s I, 0.22; p < .01), and South China had the highest ketamine-related offense rates. Conclusions In the sample, the case fatality rate was 70.7%, which was a strong indicator of underreporting, and most minor DUID-related offenses could not be captured by Chinese court files. The frequency of drug screening tests for people should be increased. The traffic police in Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang should always be equipped with fast screening test kits for drugs, which could increase the possibility of identifying DUID offenders.

Child protection proceedings for infants: Analysis of court files to identify court outcomes and requirements for families in child protection safety plans

Given the increasing involvement of families in child protection processes pre-birth and during infancy, it is imperative that we have greater evidence of child protection processes during this period. A court file review was used to determine the characteristics and issues for families who are going through care proceedings for their infants, the outcomes of court proceedings and the safety plans required for families. Of the 39 court files analysed 36 % of the families were reported to child protection prenatally and 64 % were reported postnatally. One in five infants were removed into care directly from the maternity ward with the average age of removal being 4.9 months. The main child protection concerns related to domestic violence (51 %), drug and alcohol use (49 %) and mental health issues (41 %). The majority of these cases resulted in final orders with a large proportion having until 18 protection orders (41 %), and 23 % having orders revoked or withdrawn allowing the infant to be reunified to the family. The complexity of issues of the cases in these care proceedings highlights the need for greater sophistication in strategies to support these families who cross multiple service systems to enable reunification of families and prevention of removals.