In cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the Center for Registers and Information Systems has completed a new online platform for delivering documents to people. Viewing documents is now more convenient, while delivery is cheaper and more efficient for the state. Initially, it will be possible to access documents of judicial and extrajudicial proceedings in the delivery portal, but in the future, it is planned to join other areas with the platform.
"When examining documents containing important procedural information of state institutions, there must be a verifiable trace that the person has received the necessary information and is familiar with it. In the past, for example, we often delivered notices sent by the court to people by registered mail, which is troublesome for the recipient and costly for the state. We wanted people to be able to access the documents comfortably, at a time and place that suits them. This is best enabled by a digital solution, which is why it was decided to create an online platform," said Minister of Justice Lea Danilson-Järg.
Delivery does not mean normal correspondence between an institution and a person, but only the delivery of such documents, which hold obligations for the person (including deadlines). Such documents can be, for example, fines or subpoenas and court decisions
If a person has documents for perusal in the delivery portal, a notification will be sent to them via e-mail (including the state provided e-mail). The person cannot use their desired information system before they read the documents that have been delivered to them and they are automatically forwarded to the delivery portal.
"People may not always be interested in receiving documents quickly. If the court proceedings are deliberately tried to be prolonged, it harms the interests of other parties to the proceedings. The new portal helps to prevent such problems, because it does not allow entering the e-business register or the court's e-file system until the documents have been received," explained the Minister of Justice and added: "As a next step, we see that all information systems of public sector institutions could be interfaced with the delivery portal. This would harmonize the practices of institutions and make receiving documents even more convenient and efficient," said Lea Danilson-Järg.
The delivery portal was created as part of "Estonia's Digital Agenda 2030". The first stage was completed under the leadership of the Ministry of Justice and the Center for Registers and Information Systems, being the first such solution known in the world.
In the first week, more than 18,000 documents have already been submitted from the e-file and e-business register and sent out to people through the delivery portal. 4,000 of these documents have been accepted by users.