Armenian Anti-Corruption Committee seeks ban on judge-rating platform for lawyers

Armenia's Anti-Corruption Committee has urged the Ministry of Justice to consider banning private platforms that publicly rank and rate judges, arguing that such services could undermine judicial independence.

The committee said its chairman has sent a formal letter to the Ministry of Justice outlining institutional concerns regarding the operation of helpcourt.am, an online platform where lawyers evaluate judges and share assessments of their work.

According to the agency, the platform may pose risks to the guarantees of judicial independence by creating opportunities for informal influence, dependence or pressure on judges. It said the ministry has been asked to examine whether legislation should prohibit the operation of HelpCourt and other private platforms that publicly classify or rank judges.

HelpCourt, however, says its mission is to support fair and impartial judges by providing professional evaluations from practicing lawyers.

"The system was created to evaluate and support the work of fair and objective judges in Armenia," the platform says on its website. It adds that recording lawyers' professional assessments of judges encourages the delivery of justice and promotes better reasoned and more persuasive judicial decisions.

The platform also describes itself as a practical resource for lawyers representing clients. In addition to collecting judicial evaluations, it publishes selected court rulings that it considers noteworthy, making them available to the public through a searchable, filtered database.