Some judges oppose court reform

Some 320 of 1,400 Slovak judges signed an open letter condemning the court reform proposed by Justice Minister Mária Kolíková (Za ľudí). She wants to reduce the courts’ number back to the 1997 level and the judges in question see this as limiting citizens’ access to courts and violating EU norms in terms of judicial system independence. The judges also claim the reform does not address major issues such as work overload at some courts, court delays, law enforceability, lack of court clerks, and poor IT infrastructure. Kolíková argues that a lower number of courts will allow greater specialization of judges, which will speed up and improve the quality of rulings. It remains to be seen whether the coalition has enough political capital to push through the reform.

(sme.sk)