site.btaParliament Adopts 2017 Courts Performance Reports

115 POLITICS - COURTS PERFORMANCE REPORTS - DEBATE

Parliament Adopts
2017 Courts Performance
Reports


Sofia, September 19 (BTA) - Bulgaria's National Assembly Wednesday adopted the reports on the performance of the courts in 2016 and 2017, submitted by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

A total of 682,130 cases were up for examination by the judicial system for 2017, up from 634,239 for 2016.

The Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) disposed of 9,802 cases in 2017, down from 9,902 in 2016. The authorizations for deployment of special intelligence methods decreased from 4,800 in 2016 to 4,701 in 2017.

The average caseload of the regional courts in the regional capitals increased from 52.9 cases per judge monthly in 2016 to 57.6 cases in 2017. The respective figures for the other regional courts were 37.47 and 44.4 cases. The caseload of the Sofia Regional Court was the heaviest: an average of 69.73 cases monthly for 2016 and 79.39 for 2017, compared to 34.09 and 30.97 cases, respectively, for the Sofia City Court.

The Specialized Criminal Court had a very high caseload during that period: 31.05 cases per judge monthly in 2016 and 32.17 cases for 2017, in contrast to the Turgovishte, Kurdjali, Vratsa and Montana district courts, which examined fewer than seven cases in 2016 and 2017.

The appellate courts' caseload averaged 9.33 cases monthly in 2016 and 9.65 cases in 2017.

At the regional courts in the regional capitals, there were 2.8 administrative employees per judge in 2016 and 2.83 in 2017. The ratio for the Sofia Regional Court was 3.17 in 2016 and 3.15 in 2017.

During the debate on the reports, SCC President Lozan Panov said he was concerned about the quality of Parliament's law-making and sees a violation of fundamental principles in the exercise of the right to justice. He noted the need to fill the gaps in the Judicial System Act in connection with the election of a SJC. Another key problem is a revision of the Criminal Procedure Code, adopted last year, regarding the publicity of judicial instruments. Panov said that the SCC is taking action in the right direction to address the problem of the courts' caseload, but the best result has yet to be achieved, and the judicial map needs to be modified, too. LI/LG

/СН/