King urges reducing litigation period, preserving quality of rulings

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday stressed the importance of taking the necessary measures to reduce the litigation period in Jordanian courts, while maintaining the quality of the rulings issued.

Receiving the Judicial Council’s report for the year 2023 from Judicial Council President Mohammad Ghazou, His Majesty affirmed the need to continue to build the capacities of specialised judiciary, a Royal Court statement said.

The King called for developing the electronic system to facilitate the litigation process.

Council President Ghazou said 57 per cent of the projects included under the strategic plan for the justice system (2022-2026) has been implemented, according to the statement.

He added that the electronic services of the Administrative Court have been launched, and preparations are underway to implement the electronic judicial file for lawsuits, within a digitised system.

According to Ghazou, plans have been completed to implement remote trials—which by the end of 2023 amounted to more than 100,000 criminal trials—and to expand them to include civil trials.

He said the number of members of the judiciary has increased to 968 judges, of whom 30 per cent are female.

The Higher Administrative Court received 523 cases, issuing a ruling in 511 of them, Ghazou added, noting that the Administrative Court received 751 cases and ruled in 683 of them.

The average annual judicial burden reached 655 cases, while the average completion rate per judge reached 558 cases, and the average duration of litigation in all courts was 58 days, he said.

Ghazou said nearly 4,000 alternative punishment rulings were issued in 2023, in addition to more than 5,000 alternative measures issued by juvenile courts.