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Harabin Proposes to Institute Four-Year Probationary Period for Judges
Monday 07 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 7 (TASR) - Representatives of Slovakia's justice sector and legal professionals met Monday to thrash out the ways to bring down the overly long periods the country's judges take to render judgements on legal cases.
"In 2001 there were 70 complaints filed to the Court over dilatory proceedings, while the figure currently exceeds one thousand," said Constitutional Court Chair Ivetta Macejkova, who had initiated the event on the strength of soaring number of complaints coming to the Court against too long a time spent on resolving legal cases before courts.
Supreme Court Chairman Stefan Harabin, Justice Minister Viera Petrikova, Ombudsman Pavol Kandrac, Slovak Bar Association chairman Stefan Detvai and Macejkova were also in attendance.
Macejkova told reporters afterwards they were forced to break off consultations due to lots of many related issues brought up at the event and which they agreed to solve via a commission they will establish.
According to Harabin, final solutions will be implemented in the form of legislation. Among them he suggested to simplify disciplinary proceedings and re-introduce a four-year long probationary period for judges to weed out the poor-performing ones. "It happens to be a case that having been academically well-prepared, the judges will pass selection proceedings but after putting on robes they do not bear up under the burden of a decision-making process," he said.
It will be necessary to amend such legislation as Criminal Code and Code of Civil Procedure, said Petrikova.
Trnka blamed overly long periods taken to decide court cases also on lawyers, police and relevant public authorities such as municipal council.
Defending lawyers, Detvai said these only cause obstructions which are approved by a court.
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