In the autumn of 2005 the European Union and the Council of Europe organised a competition, The Crystal Scales of Justice Award, to discover and highlight innovative projects in the field of civil justice. Two Finnish projects were entered: The Quality Project of the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal and The Reform of the Legal Aid System.

The objective of The Quality Project in the Courts in the Jurisdiction of the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal is to support the basic work of the courts and develop it so that the proceedings meet the strictest criteria of fairness, the decisions are well reasoned and justified and the services provided by the courts are affordable to the individual clients.

All the nine District Courts in the jurisdiction of the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal itself are involved in the quality project. Beside judges, prosecutors, advocates and public legal aid attorneys have participated in the work. The working methods have consisted of common discussions in working groups and training courses. The judges select themselves quality themes for the discussions and make proposals for improvement of them by setting quality objectives, and the realization of them is followed-up. The project has especially focused on proceedings and on developing the quality of judgments. A quality gauge has been developed as a part of the project. The reports of the working groups have been published in book form and on the Internet.

The project was initiated in 1999 as the first of the quality projects of the courts. It has been an example to many quality projects now ongoing in all the six court of appeal jurisdictions in Finland and some of the administrative courts.

The underlying principle of legal aid in Finland is that the person concerned finances his or her own legal assistance. If a person cannot afford the necessary assistance, it can be paid partly or wholly out of State funds. The central objective of the reform of the legal aid system in 2002 was to expand the availability of public legal aid so that the legal aid would change from being a benefit for persons of limited means to a fundamental right for everybody in need of legal aid financed out of public funds. Legal aid is provided by public legal aid attorneys, advocates and other jurists. The public legal aid attorneys work in the State legal aid offices.

Further information: Mr Antti Savela, District Court Judge, Quality Coordinator,
telephone +358 50 302 0663, and
Mr Harri Mäkinen, Chief Judge, telephone +358 50 364 1361 (quality project of the Rovaniemi Court of Appeal Jurisdiction),
Ms Merja Muilu, Ministerial Counsellor, telephone +358 9 1606 7564 (legal aid system) and
Mr Kari Kiesiläinen, Director General, telephone +358 9 1606 7532.
e-mail: first name.surname@om.fi