Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System (SJITS) within the Framework of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure

It’s not a secret for anyone that in order to protect your rights and protected interests, in the event of a tax dispute, taxpayers apply to the district administrative courts. Since December 15, 2017, the procedure of appeal and the consideration procedure in the district administrative courts has changed significantly, in connection with the entry into force of the new edition of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure of Ukraine. The number of novels that appeared in the new edition of the Code is quite significant. In this article, I would like to provide an overview of such an innovation in administrative procedure as the Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System. Article 18 of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure of Ukraine defines the tasks that are imposed on the Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System (hereinafter – the System):

• registration of documents entering the court (which may be the subject of litigation);
• determination of the judge(s) for the consideration of the case;
• exchange of documents (sending and receiving documents) in electronic form between the courts, between the court and the participants to the legal process;
• recording of the trial process and participation of participants in the trial in a court session in the videoconference mode.

It is necessary to register an official e-mail to be able to use the system. As for filing procedural documents, written and electronic evidence, as well as performing other procedural actions, it is necessary to obtain a personal electronic digital signature, in accordance with the procedure established by the Law of Ukraine “On Electronic Digital Signature”. The specifics of the use of electronic digital signatures in the System are determined by the Regulations on the Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System, which must be approved by the High Council of Justice on submission by the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine and after consultations with the Council of Judges of Ukraine. According to the Code of Administrative Court Procedure of Ukraine, persons who can use the System are divided into two categories:

1. those ones who register (registration of official e-mail) without fail – lawyers, notaries, private executors, judicial experts, state bodies and local self-government bodies, business entities of the state and municipal sectors of the economy;
2. those ones who register (registration of official e-mail) on a voluntary basis – other persons.

It is assumed that in addition to court decisions and other procedural documents, the participants in the trial process will be given any documents by the court contained in the case materials, exclusively in electronic form, by sending them to official e-mail addresses. This should significantly shorten the time for obtaining copies of the case materials and give more time for preparation for its consideration. It is important that sending a court decision to an official e-mail address does not deprive the right to receive a copy of the judgment in paper form. That is, there is still the possibility of obtaining a court decision in paper form. Procedural documents in electronic form must be submitted to the court by the participants of the case, by filling out the forms of these documents in the System, which should basically unify such documents and simplify their filing. Another positive innovation of the System is that filing of the documents to the court in electronic form relieves the participant of the case from sending copies of these documents to other participants of the case (part 9, article 44 of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure of Ukraine). In this case, the obligation of sending these documents is imposed on the court. In our realities, the important factor is the situation provided for by the CACPU, when the case can not be considered in electronic form for technical reasons for more than five days. In this situation, the case must be considered on the materials in paper form. For this reason, all case materials are translated into paper form. In this case, an attempt to avoid the dependence of the execution of proceedings from technical problems was made. The transitional provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine (paragraph 15) provide that the Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System starts functioning 90 days after the publication of the announcement of the creation and maintenance of functioning of the Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System by the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine in the newspaper “Golos Ukrainy” and on the website of the judiciary. Until then, the submission of the documents to the court and their receipt from the court will be carried out in hard copy. Despite the fact that the Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System has not begun to work yet, and there is no provision on it, its availability in the Code of Administrative Court Procedure of Ukraine should not be ignored. The specialists of Finance Business Service continue to monitor the publication of the announcement about the creation of the Single Judicial Information and Telecommunication System on the website of judiciary, as well as the approval of the provision on it, and they will timely inform their clients about it, as from this moment on, in order to participate in the administrative legal proceedings, it will be necessary to register at least an official e-mail address and receive a personal electronic digital signature.