Supreme Court’s 5-year road map reaping success

The Supreme Court is slowly but surely reaping the success of the Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations (SPJI) 2022-2027, which is aimed at addressing backlog of court cases, delays, slow administrative systems and limited resources.

The implementation of SPJI was approved on 28 June 2022, the SPJI is the result of the combined efforts of all 15 Supreme Court Justices and former members of the Court.

Its objective is to deliver justice that is timely and fair, transparent and accountable, equal and inclusive and technologically adaptive.

Based on these guiding principles, the Court aims to achieve three major outcomes through digital transformation: Efficiency, innovation and access.

There has been a significant increase in case dispositions in several courts across the country in 2024, the Supreme Court revealed.

As of 30 September, the Supreme Court posted a 22 percent disposition rate, resolving 4,294 cases, which is higher than the 21 percent disposition rate in 2023.

On the other hand, the Court of Appeals as of 30 November, posted a 35 percent case disposition rate, resolving 14,699 cases, slightly lower than the appellate court’s 35.95 percent disposition rate in 2023.

Meanwhile, the Sandiganbayan disposed of 994 cases, achieving a 44 percent disposition rate, while the Court of Tax Appeals resolved 648 cases with a 29 percent disposition rate.

Last year, the anti-graft court had a disposition rate of 57 percent, while the appellate tax court had a 29 percent disposition rate.

Of the cases handled by the lower courts, 43 percent were successfully resolved, totaling 508,197 cases.

Shari’ah district courts

The second-level courts last year, including the Regional Trial Courts and the Shari’ah District Courts, had a disposition rate of 42 percent, while first-level courts had a disposition rate of 61 percent.

The high bench said the case disposition rate is obtained by dividing the total number of decided, resolved, and archived cases by the total number of pending and newly filed cases, then multiplying the result by 100.

The SC also ventured into Artificial Intelligence (AI) as it continues to seek innovation, responsive solutions to modernize work operations, for legal research and court operations.

The legal research has developed an AI prototype with a user experience similar to ChatGPT’s.

An AI Voice-to-Text transcription system with a 90 percent accuracy rate has also been deployed in 20 select pilot courts to assist in recording court proceedings.