MOSCOW, December 11, 2007 Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents information on the degree to which Russians are informed of the working activity of courts in the country, what their information sources are and what would they like to know.

Three thirds of Russians (75%) are to some extent informed of where the court that their district belongs to is located. This includes 44% who definitely know where the court is and 31% who could approximately allocate their district court and would find it if they needed to. Residents of small towns and villages are significantly better informed of the issue.

16% of respondents consider themselves to be well informed. The majority of respondents (82%) identify that they know little or hardly know anything at all about it. The lowest level of awareness was noted among the youth of 18-24 years of age and pensioners.

The main sources of information as far as the work of courts is concerned is central television, as 42% of respondents identify; other sources mentioned are communicating with friends, relatives, acquaintances (26%); local television (23%), local media (19%). The smallest group of respondents (10%) turn to the national press in their search of information on the work of courts or make use of the grapevine at shops, markets, public transportation, etc. 9% speak of having personal experience of applying to court as the main information source on its work, whereas 5% of respondents had to face the judicial system due to an exigency of business or profession.

24% of respondents assume that they possess a sufficient amount of information on the work of courts. Another 16% specify that there is enough information in the whole, but they still would like to know more. 25% identify that there is too little information and there exists a necessity to better inform the residents of the country. Another 25% of respondents are not satisfied with the volume of available information on the work of courts. Residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg are the ones who most often complain about lack of information on the topic.

Respondents consider that the most important information on the activity of courts that they might need is about how to defend one's interests in court (54%), in what cases one should apply to court (39%), and also the order of actions when applying to court (33%). The so-called organizational information as to where the court is, the office hours that the secretary of court has, the judges' work experience, etc. seem to be less important to respondents.

The initiative all-Russia opinion poll was conducted by VCIOM on November 3-4, 2007. 1600 respondents were interviewed in 153 population areas of 46 regions of Russia. The statistical error does not exceed 3.4%.