With the bill for new Code of Organization of Courts and Status of Judicial Officers presented today at the cabinet by the Minister of Justice Konstantinos Tsiaras are introduced important innovations with regard to the organization and functioning of the courts and the acceleration of the Judiciary, while the system of conducting inspections of judges is being reformed and their development is now linked to the speed of judicial decisions.
At the same time, the criteria for the promotion of judges introduce the ethos and social representation of each judge and prosecutor. According to the bill, promotions up to the rank of chairman of the Court of Appeals will be made by absolute election only if the promoted judicial officers have completed the attendance of the mandatory training programs. On the contrary, the judicial officer who has an unjustified delay will not be promoted.
At the same time, the unjustified delay in the issuance of decisions, beyond the semester, will gradually lead to salary deprivation, non-promotion to the next grade and final cessation.
Furthermore, the inspections of judges are tightened up to the rank of the President of the Court of Appeals and the inspectors will attend mandatory special training programs which will be organized by the National School of Judicial Officers. The inspection of judicial officers will take into account, inter alia, morals, vigor, character, scientific training, judgment, perception, diligence, diligence and social performance.
It should be noted that the bill of the new Code will be elaborated, after consultation with the Judicial Associations, while with the reform of the Code, an attempt is made to eliminate malfunctions of the delays in the administration of Justice.
Particularly, according to the bill:
– The persons entitled to convene the Plenary Session of the courts are enlarged (judicial officers are added),
– Plenary sessions can be convened to exchange views on critical legal issues,
– It is provided that if for reasons of force majeure the smooth functioning of several courts or prosecutors of the same district is not possible, the Minister of Justice, at the request of the judge presiding over the political Court of Appeal of the district, may decide to suspend part or all all courts and district attorneys until these reasons disappear. The same can be done for all the courts of the country at the request of one of the presidents of the Supreme Courts. The head of the court also has the possibility to partially or completely suspend the operation of the court due to force majeure.
– Limit anachronistic locality barriers based on the latest available demographic data.
– Regulation of the organizational and operational issues of the Magistrates ‘Courts after the beginning of the operation of the magistrates’ direction in the NAP and the abolition of the criminal courts.
Moreover, promotions to the rank of President of the Court of Appeals will be made only if:
A) the promoted judicial officers have completed the monitoring of the mandatory training programs of par. 2 of article 40 of law 4871/2021 and
B) by absolute election.
On the contrary, the judicial officer who has an unjustified delay will not be promoted, while the unjustified delay in the issuance of decisions (beyond the semester) will bring:
– Deprivation of salary,
Promotion barrier and
Reason for permanent cessation.
Regarding the inspections of judicial officers, the bill provides that:
– The chairman and the members of the Inspection Board and the areopagite inspectors and state advisors are appointed for a two-year term by lot: the names of the areopagites and advisors are placed in the lottery, which is determined by the Plenary Assembly Inspection Board and inspectors from those who have two years of service.
– Before exercising their responsibilities, the members of the Inspection Boards and the Inspectors attend mandatory mandatory training programs organized by the NAP.
– In the seat of the largest of the Courts of Appeal of each district, an Office of the Inspection Secretariat is established, in which they provide their services, with exclusive employment, one or more secretaries from the staff of the courts of the seat of the Court of Appeal. The office’s responsibility is to assist the inspector in his work and in particular to collect the statistics needed to carry out the inspection of courts and judicial officers and to gather the necessary information on the progress of the decisions of the inspectors.
According to the bill, the courts and the Prosecutor’s Offices during the inspection will be checked for:
(a) the criteria on the basis of which the Chambers of the Court or the Public Prosecutor’s Office are constituted, and the cases and other functions are assigned;
b) the information of the service regarding the handling of the cases and, in particular, regarding the average times of the procedures per phase (determination, trial, issuance of a decision) and category;
c) the regular and smooth conduct of meetings;
(d) the use of new technologies; and
e) the suitability, safety and cleanliness of the buildings.
Also, during the inspection will be checked:
a) their ability to administer justice;
b) the direction of the procedure,
(c) the operation of the department or judicial body in charge;
(d) the formulation of judicial decisions and decisions of the department / their formation; and
e) the time of publication of the designs delivered to them.
All judicial officers up to the rank of President of the Court of Appeals during the inspection will:
(a) the following is checked: (ii) the processing of each case according to its seriousness and difficulty, (ii) the answers given by the decision, and (ii) the speed with which each case is handled;
(b) any useful investigation is carried out in detail, without limiting the inspector to the decisions and evidence indicated by the judicial officers being inspected;
(c) the work-related statistics of the inspected are studied;
(d) the opinion of the head of the court shall be sought;
(e) the written reports of the chairpersons of the departments served by the inspectors shall be taken into account;
(f) the meetings attended by the inspectors are monitored;
g) the participation of the inspected in the compulsory training seminars of the National School of Judicial Officers is ascertained; and
h) and there is personal communication with the inspected.
Also during the inspection will be checked:
1) ethos, vigor and character,
2) scientific training,
3) adaptability to new tasks and objects, including new technologies;
4) judgment and perception,
5) diligence and diligence,
6) service performance, ie the quality, quantity and speed of processing cases in relation to their seriousness and difficulty;
7) the ability to administer justice and to direct the proceedings;
8) the reversal or disappearance of the decisions drawn up by the inspectors, on admission of the respective legal remedy;
9) the ability to cooperate,
10) the conduct of the judicial officer in the court and especially in the hearing as well as his social performance;
11) the burden of any additional tasks and the response to them.
Finally, according to the bill:
The courts will make available to the public in electronic form through their relevant website the court decisions, which they publish and which have undergone appropriate anonymization processing.
– The IT Departments of the courts for the technical support, maintenance and further development of the information and communication technologies (ICT) systems will be staffed by specialized personnel, which will support the operation of the information systems of the Justice continuously.
– Information System Committees of the Council of State, the Supreme Court and the Court of Auditors will be established, and
– The court records will also be in electronic form.
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