BizCLIR

Ethiopia’s courts have limited reach and limited resources, but are generally well organized and administered within those constraints. Businesses and lawyers praise the organization of pleadings and scheduling, as well as the ease with which they obtain basic information on ongoing cases. Their greatest complaint, however, is the amount of time it takes to achieve a final resolution. More efficient court administration could decrease case time considerably by hiring additional judges and staff, segregating and fast-tracking basic commercial disputes from more complicated family matters on the civil docket, and improving information management within the courts and between them and other implementing agencies.

The responsibility for court administration rests with the Federal Supreme Court and its administrative divisions. Active efforts are underway to achieve better performance and efficiency of court administration. Notably, the Federal Supreme Court has initiated a national court reform project, which has offered trainings for judges and court support staff to implement administrative reforms and to better accomplish complaint resolution, record management, information technology, and customer support. It will take more than training to implement this initiative, however, and the main obstacle to implementation is lack of resources devoted to the courts. Nonetheless, the fact that such public efforts are being made is a testament to the political will available for court administration reform.