VOA: The delays of the processes in the Court of Appeal of Tirana are deepening

2023-07-05 22:26:49, Aktualitet CNA

The delays of judicial processes in the Court of Appeal of Tirana have deepened by two to three times during the year 2022, compared to 2016, when the reform of the justice system started.

The Center for Public Information Issues, INFOÇIP, has just completed a study on the workload in the Court of Appeal of Tirana.

The main cause of delays, the researchers claim, is the lack of judges, and the doubling of the judiciary is seen as a solution.

Judicial delays in the Tirana Appeal have deepened further in 2022 compared to previous years and to 2016, when the judicial reform began.

From the study on the Court of Appeal of Tirana by the INFOÇIP Center, it emerged that last year the average duration of judicial review for civil cases was 1 thousand 118 days or about 3 years, while in 2016, this indicator was about 1 year, so worsened by almost 3-fold.

While the average duration of the judicial review in 2022 for the underlying criminal case was 635 days or 1.7 years, when in 2016, this indicator was as much as half, or it worsened with almost twice the time.

The evasion of court files during 2022 suffered a significant deterioration compared to 2016, when the judicial reform began, says Gert Shella, head of the INFOÇIP Center.

The Court of Appeal in the capital announced 1,560 decisions on fundamental and civil cases, but this number is 3 times lower than in 2016, when 4,625 decisions were made.

"These indicators are also worrying in a historical sense. We have never been worse when it comes to delays and deadlines. The indicators capture the lowest historical record, and unexpected, if we keep in mind that one of the main goals of the justice reform has been and is the elimination of citizens' procrastination at the doors of the courts", says Mr. Shella .

Delays are present both in the review and the court decision, or in its official disclosure.

The average duration of the reasoning of the decision in 2022 is calculated at 60 days and has been reduced to almost five times, because in 2016 this indicator was 18 days, according to the Infochip study.

Due to the vetting process, during 2022 the Court of Appeal in Tirana operated with 6 judges most of the time with an average workload of 553 completed cases for each.

Some of them have had a greater load due to specifics such as security measures, which were not few.

During 2022, 1149 decisions on security measures, 119 protection orders, 259 recognition of foreign decisions and 230 suspensions and reinstatements were taken.

At the end of 2022, the Tirana Appeal had a stock of nearly 19,000 court cases, while about 10,000 more cases are being added from the 5 already closed Appeals.

For all these nearly 30,000 cases it would take over 4 years of work and daily decisions throughout the year by the 24 appellate judges.

This body, according to experts, should at least be doubled, before the court is further overloaded by the processes that are being collected from the other 5 closed appeals from the new judicial map.

" Albanian courts have not been filled with judges. Without judges it is impossible to deal with such a large number of court cases, and there is no magic rule but to fill our courts with judges. In 2025, it would be great luck if we reach all 50 judges in the Appeal. In 2026, it is expected that the School of Magistrates will bring the necessary resources to the judicial system, while currently the Appeal is working with about a third of the necessary staff" , says Mr. Shella.

The situation has become even more disturbing as it concerns the exceeding of reasonable judicial deadlines. This deadline was violated for 72 percent of the underlying civil cases for which a decision was taken.

This figure constitutes a negative historical record, INFOÇIP experts note, and has worsened by 10 percentage points compared to 2021.

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Albania in 2022 for violating reasonable judicial deadlines in a case that was appealed there.

This, experts say, would constitute an expensive bill for the Albanian state, if the complaints were continued by other citizens even for exceeding the reasonable trial terms, while the laws foresee up to 1 thousand dollars in compensation for each year of delay.

INFOÇIP's most recent study of the Appeal of Tirana in 2022 notes that almost all of its activity figures have been constantly deteriorating from year to year, starting from 2016.

The analysis is also continuing for the other 5 Appeals, although they no longer exist, and have been merged with that of the capital after the approval of the new judicial map, but their backlog of cases will be superimposed on the only Appeal in the capital. / VOA