The government has adopted a law that would reform judicial procedures in a bid to speed them up. In a key change, a court of second instance would now be tasked with adjudicating on the whole case rather than just on the appeal.
Cases that appear before a court of second instance are no longer to be sent back to the court of first instance if mistakes are found in the initial procedure. Instead the court of second instance will have to rule on the whole case, Justice Minister Lovro Sturm told the press after Thursday's cabinet session.
According to Sturm, the primary aim of the changes to the judicial procedures act is to speed up civil court procedures. He said the proposal represents a major change to the existing legislation.
The changes were prompted among others by a warning from the European Court of Human Rights on limited possibilities for hearings at second instance.
The solutions that have been proposed by the government will help cut overall trial times as many of the current court cases dragged on due to annulments of verdicts issued at first instance. Another important change is that trials at first instance would no longer be overseen by a judicial panel but rather by a single judge, Sturm said.
The bill also introduces new rules for serving court documents to individuals in a bid to speed up the process, including by serving people at their workplace. Hefty fines have also been proposed for failing to show up to a hearing, the minister said.
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