Ukraine Unveils eSud App: Goals and Possibilities of Moving Court Proceedings Digital

Here are the key points from the presentation of the app.

The State Judicial Administration (SJA) of Ukraine held a presentation of the eSud mobile app.

Here are the key points from the presentation of the app designed to make court proceedings in Ukraine easier.

According to the developers, the eSud mobile app not only allows users to follow the progress of documents in a court case, but also to receive procedural documents and court notices on their own smartphone. 

It is noted that this makes access to justice easier both for residents of remote settlements and territories not controlled by the Ukrainian government, and for all other residents of Ukraine.

During the presentation, the developers also said that after comprehensive closed testing, the mobile app is available for free download on Google Play and the App Store. 

Oleksiy Salnikov
Acting Head of the SJA of Ukraine

This is only the first step in implementing the President of Ukraine's initiative 'Court in a Smartphone', which was achieved in a short time frame and amid critical underfunding of the judicial system.

The eSud app allows users to:

• receive notifications about new documents arriving in their e-cabinet and changes in the status of cases in which the user is a party;
• review cases, proceedings and procedural documents sent by the court to the cabinet;
  
• view applications, motions and other documents the user has created in their cabinet;
  
• view powers of attorney and warrants located in the user's cabinet;
  
• revoke powers of attorney and warrants issued by the user.
  

Roman Babiy
People's Deputy, head of the working group on digitalization of justice and related legal institutions

Unfortunately, the problem of convenient access to justice exists across all of Ukraine. It is especially acutely felt under conditions of the pandemic and armed aggression. The task of the state in such a case is to make access to court and citizens' protection of their rights convenient and effective. Therefore, the electronic court system is one of the most effective elements for ensuring this convenience.

According to the developers, the app's budget amounted to approximately UAH 360 thousand, but these costs were covered by the UNDP Representation in Ukraine.

Serhiy Chornutskyi
Deputy Head of the SJA

We generated the idea taking into account the wishes of users of the 'Electronic Court' subsystem, the main version of which has been tested since 2018. They expressed the need to develop a mobile version of the app so that access to the 'Electronic Court' would be more convenient via mobile devices and smartphones. Therefore, the SJA of Ukraine, in addition to the idea, developed the technical specifications and functional requirements for this app.

He noted that the preparation of all permit documents has been completed and the relevant agreement with the UNDP project has been signed.

He also reported that all exclusive property rights have been transferred to the SJA of Ukraine along with the software code, so there is no longer any dependence on third-party developers for further modernization and support of the product. 

Chornutskyi stressed that this mobile app is becoming very relevant, especially for citizens in the armed conflict zone in eastern Ukraine, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 

It makes access to justice easier and in some cases does not require people in territories not controlled by Ukraine to cross the dividing line.

Regarding the name of the app, Chornutskyi explained that the letter 'e' in 'eSud' stands not for 'electronic' but for 'yes, there is', meaning 'exists'. By analogy with other services from the Ministry of Digital Transformation, in particular, 'eMalyatko'.