Basic and misdemeanor courts in the north of Montenegro worked in difficult conditions last year due to the lack of a large number of judges, but despite this, they managed to resolve a large number of cases.
According to official information, the situation is particularly alarming in Žabljak, where the court there was left without judges, after the long-time president of the court Mihailo Andjelic retired at the beginning of October last year. Anđelić worked alone in Žabljak for a long time, after the retirement of the judge Milovan Jovković.
Cases from that court are currently transferred to the Basic Court in Pljevlje and other courts.
During the last year, in the Basic Court in Pljevlja, in addition to the president, only two other female judges performed the function of judge, two judges less than the number required for the legal and up-to-date performance of the judge's function.
Nine judges used to work in the Basic Court in Pljevlja.
The problem of lack of judges in Pljevlja has been expressed for the last two years, when two judges retired.
President of the court Marina Jelovac she told "Vijesti" that the Judicial Council advertised twice for the recruitment of judges, but that none of the registered candidates expressed a desire to come and work.
She also stated that none of the candidates from Pljevlja applied for the competition.
She believes that the legal solution, which stipulates that judges must first go to training for a year and a half in the Basic Court in Podgorica, contributes to the poor interest of candidates from Pljevlje.
"I expect that the law will change in that part and that candidates who are elected as judges will be able to complete the training in other courts, not only in the Basic Court in Podgorica, which will contribute to solving the problem of the lack of judges. In the Basic Court in Pljevlja, we have counselors who have passed the professional exam, but did not apply for the advertisement because it does not suit them to spend a year and a half in training in Podgorica due to family reasons," said Jelovac.
She said that despite that fact, the Basic Court in Pljevlja "achieved a good result in terms of quantity and quality".
The average workload of judges in 2023 was 772 cases, and an average of 557,67 cases were resolved per judge, and 214,33 remained unresolved.
In the Basic Court in Berane, even 60 percent of the judges' positions were vacant at the end of last year.
That's what it says about the report on the implementation of the work plan of the Basic Court for the year 2023.
There are currently four judges working, including the court president, and according to systematization there should be nine of them, plus the court president.
"The problem we face in our work is the lack of referee staff. Therefore, it can be concluded that the Basic Court in Berane worked in difficult and complex conditions during 2023 due to unfilled judicial positions, i.e. an insufficient number of judges in relation to the number of cases in operation and especially due to the complexity of the cases. The above, especially given the fact that throughout the year, cases from other courts - the Basic Court in Plav, the Basic Court in Rožaje, the Basic Court in Bijelo Polje, of different structures and ages - were submitted for processing to this court," the report on the work of the Basic Court states. in Berane last year, signed by the president of the court Ivan Došljak.
The problem of the lack of judges in this court has been expressed since the end of 2017, after some of the judges were transferred to work in other courts, some retired, and one judge had her mandate terminated at her personal request at the beginning of last year.
In the Basic Court in Bijelo Polje in 2023, not all judge positions were filled. In that court, 12 judge positions were systematized, and at the beginning of 2023, eight were filled, including the president of the court.
"In April of last year, the employment of the president of the court and one judge ended (September), and two judges, as well as the president of the court (August), took up the position of judge, so that at the end of the year, this court was working in capacity with 8 judges and president of the court", stated in the report on the work of the president of the court Gorica Đalović.
The Basic Court in Kolašin employs a court president and one judge, and the Decision on the number of judges stipulates that there will be three of them.
"The Judicial Council tried on several occasions to fill that vacant position, but it was not done due to the lack of interest of potential candidates for judges," the president of the court stated in the report. Mirjana Čepić.
The report on the work of the Basic Court in Plav for the past year has not yet been published on the sudovi.me website. In the work report for 2022, it was stated that the positions of the president of the court and two judges were systematized in that court, and that one judge was missing during that year.
Even in the Basic Court in Rožaje, not all judge positions were filled. The judicial function was performed by the president of the court and one judge, while three judicial positions were vacant throughout the year.
The misdemeanor court in Bijelo Polje also had problems filling the judges' posts last year, which, in addition to the seat of the court, has seven other departments in cities in the north of the country. This court covers almost two-thirds of the territory of Montenegro, and in each division of the court one judge works in the seat of the court and in the division of the court in Berane, where two judges work each. The seat of the court and the court department in Berane account for 50 percent of the court's total cases.
"The court worked with reduced capacity, that is, not all judge positions were filled for the entire year, because one judge of the court was on sick leave literally from the day of the election, on May 19, 2020, and to this day, that is, she was on sick leave for the whole of 2023 ... The absence of another judge for almost three months due to illness and the president of the court himself for two months with interruptions will probably affect the total number of completed cases in 2023," states the report on the work of the Court for Misdemeanors in Bijelo Polje, which signed by the president Alija Beganović.
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