site.btaJustice Ministry Reimbursed for Slow Justice Compensations

Bulgaria's Council of Ministers on Wednesday approved BGN 220,400 in additional expenditures on the Justice Ministry budget for reimbursement of expenses incurred by the Ministry on payment of compensations for slow justice to natural and legal persons.

This is the total amount disbursed by the Ministry between January 1 and March 31, 2024 on agreements concerning a violated right to having one's case heard by a court within a reasonable time under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.   

In its quarterly report on the procedure for compensating slow justice victims, the Inspectorate with the Supreme Judicial Council (ISJC) said that out of 174 applications for compensation considered since the beginning of 2024, eighty-eight were held to be well-founded. The record-slow civil case was for indemnification after a road traffic accident, which was tried in Sofia and lasted eleven years, eleven months and two days. Since the accident occurred in Cyprus, several letters rogatory had to be sent to Larnaca.

The administrative procedure for slow compensation justice is available to parties to disposed-of civil, administrative and criminal procedures and accused parties, victims or aggrieved legal persons under dismissed pre-trial proceedings. The applications are considered by the ISJC, and then the agreements on payment of compensations are signed by the Justice Minister.