The unbearable situation at the Bratislava IV Municipal Court
The President of the Judicial Council of the Slovak Republic Marcela Kosová met with the President of the Bratislava IV Municipal Court Miriam Oswaldová. Miriam Oswaldová informed Marcela Kosová that the court lacks adequate capacity for the court´s functioning. The public tender for the selection of a building joining the Bratislava III Municipal Court and the Bratislava IV Municipal Court has not been completed yet. The judges and administration staff work in two buildings - in Petržalka and Dúbravka which have inadequate capacity as well as technology.
"It is essential that the judges and staff have decent conditions for their work as soon as possible. The capacity of both buildings of the municipal court is already exceeded by 50 persons, while 55 judges out of the originally planned number of 69 judges are on duty and almost 30 posts of judicial staff are still vacant in the court. One person has applied in the selection process for 10 vacant staff positions. It is a very bad situation and an unfortunate consequence of the new court map," says President of the Judicial Council.
The Bratislava IV Municipal Court took over four hundred thousand files from the former Bratislava District Courts in June 2023. In terms of pending files, there are 331 files per judge on average as of August 31, 2024. In the first half of 2024, the Bratislava IV Municipal Court received 8,678 new files, while during this period the judges handled 10,489 files. At the same time, the Municipal Court also includes 62 notary offices in Bratislava.
"It is a failure of the state that despite the declared benefits of the new court map, one judge in the department has over 300 files, which is not in human power to handle without delays. It is unthinkable for a judge not to have even just his assistant or a senior judicial officer. With such an unbearable burden on judges, it is not surprising that in the first half of 2024, based on the findings of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, it was necessary to pay 356,600 € in compensation for delays in proceedings and over 84,000 € in legal costs," concluded Marcela Kosová.
"It is essential that the judges and staff have decent conditions for their work as soon as possible. The capacity of both buildings of the municipal court is already exceeded by 50 persons, while 55 judges out of the originally planned number of 69 judges are on duty and almost 30 posts of judicial staff are still vacant in the court. One person has applied in the selection process for 10 vacant staff positions. It is a very bad situation and an unfortunate consequence of the new court map," says President of the Judicial Council.
The Bratislava IV Municipal Court took over four hundred thousand files from the former Bratislava District Courts in June 2023. In terms of pending files, there are 331 files per judge on average as of August 31, 2024. In the first half of 2024, the Bratislava IV Municipal Court received 8,678 new files, while during this period the judges handled 10,489 files. At the same time, the Municipal Court also includes 62 notary offices in Bratislava.
"It is a failure of the state that despite the declared benefits of the new court map, one judge in the department has over 300 files, which is not in human power to handle without delays. It is unthinkable for a judge not to have even just his assistant or a senior judicial officer. With such an unbearable burden on judges, it is not surprising that in the first half of 2024, based on the findings of the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, it was necessary to pay 356,600 € in compensation for delays in proceedings and over 84,000 € in legal costs," concluded Marcela Kosová.
