All verdicts and judgments will soon be available online | Inland

The public nature of court decisions is laid down as a foundation in the constitution. After all, society must be able to verify whether the judges’ decisions and motivations proceed as prescribed by law, argues the constitutional author. But even if those judgments and judgments must be publicly pronounced and freely accessible, this is often not evident in the facts. For example, the printed versions are scattered all over the country in the many courts and tribunals.

In order to put an end to the red tape faced by magistrates, defendants, civil parties and lawyers, the constitution was amended in 2019 to create the possibility to publish decisions on an online platform. With the bill from Minister Van Quickenborne, the government is now complying with this.

In concrete terms, a central database for judgments and judgments will be set up, which is very similar to the Dutch case law.nl. After advice from the Council of State and the Data Protection Authority, Van Quickenborne hopes to have the legal framework approved by this summer, so that the database can enter into force at the beginning of 2023. From then on, judges will be able to upload their verdicts and judgments.

In the first phase, magistrates will have the possibility to consult the judgments and judgments in the database. Lawyers, defendants, civil parties and experts will also be able to digitally view judgments in their specific file. According to Van Quickenborne, the central database can also be of value during judicial and criminal investigations, for example when, at the request of a magistrate, it is checked whether names of certain suspects have appeared in previous verdicts or judgments without being a suspect at the time. In order to prevent abuses, magistrates will have to submit a reasoned request in advance.

In the same first phase, certain statements will be made fully available online to the entire company. This may concern assize cases such as murder or manslaughter and terrorism offences. In correctional cases this is rather exceptional, but it is possible in specific cases. Names or details that could lead to the identity of victims will never be published to protect their privacy.

Only in a second phase will all judgments and judgments be published publicly and can be consulted by everyone by means of a search engine. The names of private persons are pseudonymised, which means that they are replaced by pseudonyms. Other elements that can lead to their identification are also adapted. Names of legal entities are retained.

“This is a crucial step in the digitization of justice,” says Van Quickenborne. “A swift justice system must make its rulings transparent and easy to the public. Together with professional judgment officers, we ensure the constitutionally guaranteed public access to the verdicts.”

According to the minister, the central database will make data analyzes possible, for example to check statistically how judges interpret and apply certain laws. In this way, the government and parliament can also fine-tune justice policy to social developments, he says.