Over 7 cases from ten courts across the country in which a large number of judges recently retired have been reassigned to other judges and are already in the works, MIA's analysis shows. The Judicial Council announces new judges in December, and according to the systematization, 000 judge posts are vacant. The president of the Constitutional Court, Dobrila Katsarska, told MIA that the number of new judges provided by the "infusion" is sufficient, according to her, only good organization is needed. The Academy of Judges and Public Prosecutors points out that a large number of cases are still unresolved precisely because of the lack of personnel in the judiciary.

According to legal provisions, when a judge retires or terminates his mandate for some other reason, his cases are assigned to other judges. The Judicial Council says that they sent the retirement decisions to the presidents of the courts and they distributed them to other judges through the AKMIS system.

– We cannot say in advance how many objects will become obsolete and if they will become obsolete at all. All judges are making efforts to finish the cases so that we do not face their statute of limitations, says the Judicial Council.

The MIA analysis also shows that the objects are redistributed. After we requested information from 18 courts about the number of cases that the judges had before which the Judicial Council of the Republic of North Macedonia at the 407th session concluded that they were terminated from their judicial function due to fulfilling the conditions for old-age pension, MIA received a response from 13 courts. The number of cases that the retired judges left in "trust" to their colleagues is 7.

Three retired judges from the Basic Criminal Court - Skopje have left behind the most, i.e. a total of 1 cases which, as they say from the Criminal Court, have already been distributed to other judges.

- Three judges from the Offenses - traffic department are retiring from the Basic Criminal Court - Skopje, where six new judges who were elected during the last year were previously assigned to act, according to their answer.

From there, they point out that it is only about cases from the Offenses - Traffic department, which, as they say, "are not and cannot be urgent and custodial" and in the handling of which, as they state, "there will not be any delay caused by the redistribution with other judges".

The Basic Civil Court is the second court in a row with the most distributed cases, a total of 1. From there, they say that six judges were dismissed due to fulfilling the conditions for retirement, who had a total of 447 cases in their work, and at the session held on July 766, another was dismissed one judge due to fulfilling the same conditions, who had 7 cases in his work.

The court says that the cases have been distributed, and as they state in the answer, the court is in the phase of physically handing over the cases to the judges to whom they have been distributed.

The fewest distributed cases are in the High Administrative Court, from where four judges retired with a total of 179 cases left "in work".

The number of 7 is supplemented by the distributed cases from the Basic Court of Bitola with Demir Hisar department (671), the Basic Court of Tetovo (1402), the Basic Court of Radovish (1014), the Basic Court of Strumica (774), the Basic Court of Kumanovo (482), the Court of Appeal Skopje (360), and Basic Court Shtip with a division in Probishtip (228).

The appellate courts in Gostivar and Shtip and the Kavadarci Basic Court responded that the retired judges had no pending cases at the time of reaching the retirement age. While, the courts that have not responded to the moment of publication of this text, and we submitted questions to them, are the Bitola Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Macedonia and the Basic Courts in Krusevo, Prilep and Struga.

Revising the judicial network is a prerequisite for a better organization of the judicial system

When asked whether the last large wave of retired judges will affect the efficiency of the judicial system, the president of the Constitutional Court, Dobrila Katsarska, answered that first a good analysis should be done and the judicial network revised, in order to determine how many judges are needed in The Republic of North Macedonia, in accordance with the European criteria for access to justice, to evaluate the key factors, namely the number of inhabitants and the number of cases in the courts, especially after the census held in 2021.

- As far as I am informed, such an analysis has not been done. Furthermore, it should be reconsidered whether it is necessary to have a court in every city or perhaps some of the courts should be transformed as departments of larger courts in neighboring cities. Only then can we say whether the retirement of judges will affect the efficiency of the judicial system, she believes.

Her personal view, as she says, is that the retirement of judges will not significantly affect the efficiency of the judicial system if there is good organization and management.

The Judicial Council, on the other hand, says that they constantly make analyzes even outside of such situations, and whenever there is a need to delegate judges to another court. They add that analyzes are currently being made on the necessity of delegating judges.

- If we follow the European average of judges, then we have an almost sufficient number of judges in relation to the number of the population from the last census, they say from there.

200 judge posts vacant, new judges in December

The announced "infusion" of new judges from the Council indicates that it will happen in December this year with 30 new judges, while after two years there will be 55 new judges. According to the systematization, as they state, about 200 judge posts are currently vacant. From there, they inform that during the year 2023, about 40 judges will retire and point out that the judiciary has enough qualified personnel to perform its duties.

Katsarska says that the number of judges foreseen in the "infusion" from the Judicial Council is quite sufficient.

– This number of new judges is quite sufficient, and the parent institution responsible for this issue is the Judicial Council, which has the obligation to make a good schedule of judges, to hire them accordingly, according to the needs of the courts. I believe that the future judges will bring new energy and will be enthusiasts who will greatly contribute to effectiveness and efficiency and consequently, with honest work, they will repair the reputation of the judiciary, she points out.

When asked about the general need for new judges in the judiciary in our country and whether the mechanism of generating new ones only through the Academy of Judges is sufficient to provide them, she says that she would not be able to speculate with numbers.

 - It is still the competence of the Judicial Council, which is expected to make a solid and supported analysis, which will be full of facts and will locate the real needs of each court. I believe that the Judicial Council is significantly late in this regard, said the president.

The Academy for Judges and Prosecutors is attended by 156 students, 59 are expected to take the final exam. 

The Academy for Judges and Prosecutors informs that currently 59 students from the seventh generation are following practical classes, and 97 students from the eighth generation are following theoretical classes, which means that a total of 156 students are currently following the training.

- It is expected that from the end of 2022, the students of the seventh generation (59 students) will take the final exam at the Academy, they state in the answer.

In relation to information about the start of new training and how many candidates are expected to be admitted, the Academy says that an announcement for admission to initial training for a new generation of listeners has not yet been published and they do not have specific information when it will be published.

- According to the projection that we received from the Judicial Council of the RSM, the number of vacant judicial positions for the basic courts in the Republic of North Macedonia is 150, and according to the projection of SJORSM, the number of vacant positions for public prosecutors is 95. Considering that the new Academy Law for judges and public prosecutors is in the parliamentary procedure, we are waiting for its adoption and entry into force, after which the Management Board of the Academy will decide based on the received projections for vacancies from the Councils, they state from there.

The Academy says that according to the positive legal regulations in the country, there is no possibility for vacant judge and public prosecutor positions to be filled by persons who only have some experience in the judiciary (such as lawyers) and who have not successfully completed the initial training at the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors. prosecutors.

- The procedure for the selection of a judge or public prosecutor takes place in such a way that the SSRSM/SJORSM makes a decision to publish an announcement for the selection of a judge or public prosecutor immediately after the position of judge or public prosecutor is vacant, or upon established need. The Council selects a judge or public prosecutor from the ranking list of candidates submitted by the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors who responded to the announcement. The SSRSM/SJORSM selects a judge or public prosecutor from among the candidates who have completed the initial training of the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors in order according to the achieved success determined in the final ranking list published by the Academy, they clarify from there.

They add that any person who fulfills the conditions stipulated by the Law on Court Officers can become a professional associate in court, while only a person who has successfully completed training at the Academy for Judges and Public Prosecutors and thereby acquired the right to be a judge can be elected with the status of candidate for judge.

A large number of cases are still unresolved precisely because of the lack of personnel in the judiciary, the Academy points out. According to them, the courts and public prosecutor's offices are piling up with new ongoing cases, causing a standstill in the justice system, which, in turn, as they say, "additionally affects the quality of the decisions made".