The more often Russians encounter courts, the less they trust them

The more often citizens encounter courts, the less they trust them, according to a sociological survey conducted by the Russian Field research group in the Volga Federal District commissioned by the T&M consulting bureau. However, in general, everything does not look so bad, according to the initiators of the study: 58% of respondents reported that they trust the “third power” to a greater or lesser extent, and only 33% adhere to the opposite point of view. As Russian Field explains, the survey in the Volga region gave rise to a nationwide project: the study is planned to be conducted in other federal districts.

A telephone survey of residents of the Volga Federal District took place from February 27 to March 5, 2024, and 2.8 thousand respondents took part in it. They were asked how they feel about the judicial system and which law enforcement agencies they tend to trust. Sociologists were also interested in whether the respondents had personally encountered the courts and whether a person could, in principle, count on a fair resolution of his issue there.

It turned out that over the past five years, only 30% of respondents have personally encountered the judicial system, and it is they who demonstrate the highest level of distrust in the courts (42% versus 29% among those who have not had to deal with this). 53% of those “involved” and 61% of those “not involved” answered the question about trust positively. Let us note that 41% of those who had to deal with the judicial system acted as plaintiffs or victims; 22% of respondents happened to be defendants or defendants; another 14% had the status of witnesses.

It is noteworthy that, despite the high proportion of skeptics, 71% of respondents believe that a citizen can count on a fair consideration of his issue in court, and 23% of respondents hold the opposite point of view. Among wealthy citizens, the level of optimism is 7 percentage points higher than among the poor. At the same time, 40% of respondents confirmed that they had heard about controversial and controversial court decisions in their region. Of the subjects of the Volga District, this is most often talked about in the Saratov region, least often in Udmurtia. Residents of Udmurtia also express the greatest confidence in the judicial system (63% trust, 23% do not trust), and they also more often expect a fair decision from the court (76% of respondents). The judicial system enjoys the least trust in Bashkiria (50% trust, 39% do not trust), and the court is considered unfair more often in the Orenburg region (32% of respondents do not expect a fair decision from it). The majority of respondents believe that when making a decision on a high-profile case, a judge should first of all be guided by the law (83%), about half (49%) also rely on the testimony of both parties. Much less frequently, respondents believe that a judge should be guided by his own opinion (16%) and messages on social networks and the press (4%).

When asked where they would most likely turn if their rights were violated, people in almost all regions of the Volga region most often named the prosecutor’s office (an average of 42% of answers) and the police (31%), and the court was in third place in this row (30 %). Another 5% of respondents remembered human rights organizations, and 2% were ready to complain to the presidential administration (the question included the opportunity to give several answers to one question). However, in 5 of the 14 regions of the district, the court turned out to be more popular than the police – these are the Ulyanovsk, Saratov, Orenburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Penza regions.

The third place of courts in the line of institutions focused on protecting the rights of citizens can be explained by the specifics of the appeal procedure, says Garegin Mitin, partner of the T&M consulting bureau. Firstly, a simple statement is not enough for this – you need to draw up and file a claim, and secondly, you also need to know which court has jurisdiction over a particular dispute. It is no coincidence, the expert notes, that according to the survey results, 73.5% of respondents are aware of the need to resort to qualified legal assistance when going to court, while only 7.7% of respondents are ready to defend their rights independently. But in general, the level of trust in the court reflects the quality and effectiveness of the entire legal policy of the state, Mr. Mitin is sure: “Only a third of those surveyed absolutely trust the work of the judicial system, but in general, the overall level of citizen trust exceeds 50%, which can be considered an adequate indicator.”

It is noteworthy that until 2013, public trust in the courts was considered a key indicator of the effectiveness of the federal target program “Development of the Judicial System.” But in the end, the government was forced to refuse to take public opinion into account: negative assessments of the courts were too high (up to a third of all respondents), although according to calculations the indicator of distrust should have dropped to 6%.

However, notes another T&M partner, Anton Timchenko, over the past decade, the feeling of security and trust in the judicial system throughout the country as a whole has grown noticeably, and, although not by a significant margin, positive assessments of the justice system still prevail: general trust in the court, recorded sociologists last year at the country level – 43% of respondents. Against this background, 58% of positive assessments of the judicial system in the Volga Federal District, of which 34% express unequivocal trust, is a fairly high level, the expert summarizes.

Anastasia Kornya