Iravaban.net talked with Harutyun Harutyunyan, a member of the Council of the Chamber of Advocates, about the creation of the unified e-Justice system, the effectiveness of filing a lawsuit electronically, and the problems in the system.

Harutyunyan told us that at the moment the electronic system operates with many defects, very often when entering a claim or an appeal, they have to call several times, asking for assistance regarding various issues, because from time to time there are failures of electricity and certain functions happen.

“As of now, there are a lot of complaints, and I also think that this change was inappropriate at this stage to the extent that it should have been allowed to do it in a paper format at the same time as well. For example, we have to file an appeal from Friday, the deadline of which was yesterday, we were finally able to download it into the system in the evening, because on Friday the building of the State Security Council had no electricity, the system did not work automatically,” he said.

According to Harutyunyan, they had a problem with the system when they filed a claim with a petition to take a measure to secure the claim, and the other side immediately became aware that there was a claim against them, and under normal conditions, the court did not make a decision on securing the claim before the other party against whom it was directed, the court could not find out whether there is a motion to secure the claim or not.

He also noted: “Our office and partners, have adopted such an approach that in case of problems, we immediately inform the service providers so that we can avoid facing the same problem as soon as possible.”

According to Harutyun Harutyunyan, when they attach a large volume of files, they have to split the files so that they can be attached, which is an additional difficulty and a loss of time, and if there are many pieces of evidence attached to the trial documents they submit, in that case, additional time is required to split them and attach.

According to the lawyer, the issue should be addressed urgently, because it causes great discomfort for the legal community.

This publication was prepared by the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO in cooperation with CSO Anti-Corruption Coalition of Armenia within the framework of the “Multi-Faceted OGP Action: Open Justice & Anti-Corruption Commitments” project implemented with the support of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), in the framework of the European Union funded “EU for Integrity Programme for the Eastern Partnership” Action.

The publication expresses the position of the author, the ALA, which does not necessarily coincide with the position of the OGP and the EU.