Cases pile up as Supreme Court waits for new staff from judiciary reform

This Court has now the lowest number of judges in history and assistants, who, according to the new law, should all be magistrates.

The last hope is the establishing of the new judiciary institutions, otherwise the stock of cases will be higher and the main concern for the next five years.

“Certainly, things will change with the reform. We expect to see what happens, but the number of judges and legal assistants must increase, because we are working in very hard conditions. On the other hand, the number of cases reviewed for the first six months of this year is not low. There are 2000 cases in total, with 2000 decisions, most of which taken through the Administrative College, 360 from the Civilian College, less then 570 from the Criminal College. This is out of any kind of standard. A few years ago, this was the number of cases reviewed in a year”, said the President of the Supreme Court, Xhezair Zaganjori.

But what’s the solution so that citizens will not have to wait any longer?

“We’re not the ones deciding for solutions. The constitutional framework before was that Judges would be appointed at the Supreme Court by a Presidential decree, same as at the Constitutional Court. Now it has changed, became competence of the Supreme Judiciary Council. But the Council has not been created yet. I hope that it is created soon, to appoint new judges and start a new organization”, Zaganjori added.

Due to the stock of cases inherited for many years, and also due to the complaints that are filed from any court in the country, the situation got even worse after the recent resignations.

“The situation got worse recently, due to several factors. The stock is getting bigger. It is important to commit and concentrate on the reform. Secondly, we have a significant lower number judges and assistants. Most of half are gone. We have reiterated several times that we need 19 judges here”, Zaganjori said.

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