Court Fee and Service of Process Automation for Efficient Case Processing

Seeking ways to help Serbian courts with their everyday administrative tasks such as court fee calculation and processing, and service of process, our USAID Rule of Law Project worked on programing upgrades to the relevant modules of the AVP – the case management system serving Serbia’s basic and higher courts for the past 10 years. The programing of upgrades was completed amid the state of emergency declared in Serbia due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and released for system-wide use during May.

Prior to the pandemic preventing in-person events, during February and March this year, the USAID Rule of Law Project delivered as many as 24 user training sessions for over 800 court staff from all basic and higher courts in Serbia, in order to enable them to use the future modules appropriately in their daily work. With the state of emergency and new social distancing rules, the project staff switched to remote assistance, via e-mail and phone, and developed a set of electronic tools – video tutorials and user manuals – to provide requisite user support with the upgraded software modules.

The video below tells the story of how, with DPI’s assistance, the administrative and procedural issues often plaguing the courts were resolved through automation, as well as the expected impact of these activities. We wish to thank our partners in the Supreme Court of Cassation, the High Court Council, the Ministry of Justice, the Judicial Academy, and the courts for their help in successfully deploying the software upgrades, as well as helping us with the making of this video!