Justice Minister Lovro Sturm believes that next year will be crucial in efforts to eliminate court backlogs. He told the press in Ljubljana on Tuesday that his optimism was based on the continuing fall in the number of pending cases.
Speaking on the first anniversary of the implementation of the Lukenda project that aims to eliminate court backlogs by 2010, Sturm said that the majority of the measures taken by the government should begin producing results in 2007.
The decreasing trend in the number of pending cases began in 2005. According to statistical data, the number of such cases fell 7.5% (42,495) at the end of 2005 in comparison with the beginning of that year.
The number of such cases had dropped by further 4.8% (25,069 cases) in the first half of 2006, the minister added. This is an upbeat result, considering that all the measures envisaged by the Lukenda project had not yet been implemented, he noted.
According to Sturm, the main measures taken by the ministry in 2006 were related to the conditions in which the judiciary works and included the acquisition of additional office space and recruitment of new staff.
Sturm revealed that the ministry acquired 17,500 square metres of office and other space for judicial bodies in 2006, worth around SIT 4.4bn (EUR 18.36m).
It issued calls for 227 new judges and took on 70 additional judges and court clerks in 2006. In 2007 the ministry plans to employ 90 new judges and 250 court clerks; in 2008, the number is to rise to 18.
Efforts also extended to legislation, where the ministry produced the act on protection of the right to a trial without undue delay that will enter into force on 1 January 2007.
Sturm moreover said that Slovenia so far had to pay out EUR 686,480 in damages stemming from rulings of the European Court of Human Rights on drawn-out trials.
The project is dubbed "Lukenda" after Franjo Lukenda, who won a complaint in October 2005 against Slovenia over a lengthy trial.
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