President of the Judicial Council has discussions with court presidents

In these days all the presidents of the regional and district courts of Slovakia, the presidents of administrative courts, the vice-president of the Specialised Criminal Court and the presidents of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic and the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic will visit the official seat of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic.

The reason for this are meetings directly with the President of the Judicial Council, Marcela Kosová. Shortly after her election to office, she announced her efforts to get closer to the judges, to identify the problems of individual court districts and to help solve them within the competences of the Judicial Council.

The discussions kicked off on Monday 24th June and will continue until mid-July. The President of the Judicial Council provided more information on the upcoming legislative changes also initiated by the Judicial Council, as well as the upcoming activities of the Judicial Council as a collective body. At the same time, she also familiarised herself with the specific problems faced by the presidents of individual courts. "I find this meeting stimulating. I am very glad that the President of the Judicial Council invited us, even the presidents of district courts from the Nitra region first. We are glad that we were given such an opportunity to express ourselves and to give our opinion on the functioning of our courts", thinks Oľga Kováčová, the President of the Komárno District Court. The discussion revealed that one of the most alarming problems is the occupancy of the courts. "For many years we have been troubled by the fact that the number of judges in individual courts has been reduced by the Ministry of Justice. We cannot expect quality decisions unless we are well staffed, this will clearly be reflected in the results", says Eva Kovácsová, President of the District Court of Nové Zámky. In addressing this issue, it is also necessary to speed up the recruitment of new judges. The conditions of the mass selection procedure for the post of judge, which need to be changed, are not ideal either. "What I gave today as a demand was to intensify the mass selection procedure. It takes a long time to select and appoint a judge in terms of time. By the time an applicant goes through the selection process and actually becomes a judge it is a time consuming process. In the past, it was up to and it is still up to the Judicial Council. The President promised that she would certainly take measures in this regard", said Ján Auxt, the President of the Regional Court in Banská Bystrica. The judges also point to the need for training of judges, with more attention to be paid especially to the training of young judges. "It is always good to listen to experts when adopting laws, and several suggestions for possible solutions were made here. Whoever is reasonable and wants to listen will lean towards the voice of the majority and the voice of the experts, that is the only way it makes sense", says Peter Heinrich, President of the Nitra District Court. "Something will have to be done to change the public's view of the courts, this is the challenge for all of us in the coming years", concluded Roman Greguš, the President of the Regional Court in Nitra.

The meetings take place from 24th June 2024 to 2nd July 2024 and are organized twice a day. In mid-July, the same meeting will be held with the Presidents of the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic and the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic. In the autumn, the President of the Judicial Council Marcela Kosová plans to continue the discussions with the judges in open personal communication. Her programme will include visits to judges directly in their court districts.