site.btaJustice Ministry Proposes Measures against Slow Justice for Heavy Traffic Accidents

A package of legislative changes against delay in serious road accident cases has been published for public consultation by the Justice Ministry, the Ministry's press service reported on Monday. The proposals are the result of a commitment made in February by Justice Minister Georgi Georgiev to parents whose children died in traffic accidents.

The package of changes to the Criminal Procedure Code, the Judicial System Act, and the Expert Witness Ordinance aims to tighten the rules for expert witnesses in car examinations. It also provides for investment in expert witnesses' training and provides additional opportunities to have them questioned in court via videoconferencing, which can shorten the time it takes to hear cases.

The specific measures in the proposed amendments are:

• Additional possibilities for the court to question the expert witnesses by videoconference.
• Introducing examinations for recognition of the experts' competence.
• State investments in the training of experts to improve their qualifications.
• Introducing the possibility for the Minister of Justice to request the exclusion from the lists of the courts of experts who systematically fail to fulfil their duties.
• Providing the opportunity to graduates with a Master's degree in forensic automotive and forensic traffic engineering to practice in this field, even if they have less than five years of experience, on the condition that they pass an exam before the Justice Ministry.
• Establishing a new type of forensic road expertise to assess the impact of road infrastructure on the accident.