Trial for murder of police inspector Slavoljub Šćekić, infection of babies in the Bijelo Polje maternity hospital, death of a woman from Cetinje Ivan Šoć, are just some of the many that have lasted for more than a decade.
The efficiency of the judiciary is evidenced by the ongoing trials against former heads of the judiciary, prosecution and police, as well as other high-ranking officials. Although criminal proceedings were initiated several years ago, most of them are at an early stage, due to constant delays.
At the beginning of June this year, there were 591 cases older than 10 years before regular courts, according to data provided by the Judicial Council (JC). Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG).
The oldest case before regular courts, regarding compensation for procedural costs, has been pending for 42 years and is in the Higher Court in Podgorica, according to SS data.
In June, that court had 198 cases older than 10 years, six of which were criminal.
Many other criminal trials are on the verge of lasting more than a decade, and most of them are lasting longer than three years, within which each one should be completed, in order to avoid falling into the category of old cases.
The Supreme Court (SC), headed by Valentina Pavlicic, in June this year presented the Unified Program for Resolving Old Cases (older than three years), which set an ambitious goal - that by the end of 2027 there would be no such cases unresolved in the courts. There were almost 7.500 of them at the end of March this year.
Pavličić called on court presidents to make additional efforts to reduce the number of unresolved old cases by 50 percent by the end of this year.
The court assesses that the goal of having no backlogged cases by the end of 2027 is ambitious, but not unattainable.
"On condition that all the measures envisaged in the strategic document are consistently implemented and strong administrative and political support is ensured," the Supreme Court told CIN-CG.
In order for the goal of no old cases by the end of 2027 to be achievable, the director of the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) emphasizes Marija Popović Kalezić, more judges and administrative staff need to work exclusively on resolving old cases.
"It is also crucial to introduce efficient case management methods, such as digitalization, prioritization by age and complexity, and regular monitoring of enforcement. The importance of cooperation with the legal community and other participants in the proceedings must not be forgotten, because without joint efforts, efficiency will not be complete," she notes.
Twice as much money for violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time
According to data from a Supreme Court document, last year, in lawsuits in which a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time was found, 77.400 euros were awarded in compensation for non-pecuniary damage, which is more than double compared to 2023, when 33.100 euros were paid.
Representative of Montenegro before the European Court of Human Rights Katarina Peković CIN-CG warns that in order to ensure respect for the right to a trial within a reasonable time, it is necessary to elect the missing judges of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro and regular courts, as well as advisory staff, which is one of the prerequisites for ensuring respect for the right to a trial within a reasonable time.
A particular problem was the length of proceedings before the Constitutional Court. However, the information provided to the Montenegrin Government by the court in mid-March this year states that almost 100 percent of old cases have been resolved, and that the length of proceedings has been significantly reduced.
"In less than nine months, out of 769 cases in progress, we have only two cases in which a decision has not been made, for objective reasons (lack of a quorum to decide on requests for exemption)," the information reads.
Peković told CIN-CG that the Office of the Ombudsman currently has 48 active cases, 28 of which relate to the length of proceedings before the Constitutional Court, while there are currently no active cases relating to the length of proceedings before regular courts.
"During 2025, the European Court of Human Rights issued one judgment and seven decisions against Montenegro, which related to the excessive length of proceedings before the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, and there were no judgments/decisions related to the excessive length of proceedings before regular courts," Peković states.
If the current situation with lengthy court proceedings does not change, Popović Kalezić warns for CIN-CG, Montenegro can expect an increase in the number of lawsuits for damages due to failure to respect the right to a trial within a reasonable time.
"Prolonged backlogs and inefficiency of the judiciary undermine citizens' trust in the legal system, which can lead to an increased number of compensation claims, and thus additional costs for the state budget. In the long term, this not only burdens the financial system, but also weakens the basis of legal certainty and fairness," the CEGAS director points out.
The Supreme Court emphasizes that the implementation of the Program will also enable the trial to be held within a reasonable time, and that it contains a plan to reduce the backlog of old cases, but also introduces preventive measures to prevent the creation of new old cases.
A worrying number of old objects
Both domestic and international reports have warned for years that the number of old cases in the Montenegrin judiciary is worrying.
For years, the European Commission's reports on Montenegro have repeatedly stated that the lack of final decisions contributes to the perception of impunity in Montenegro. The latest report highlights that the efficiency of the judicial system remains a serious challenge, with growing backlogs in the work of the courts.
The latest report by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) from October 2024 also states that the Montenegrin judiciary is a system that "creates a backlog".
The Human Rights Action (HRA) report Analysis of the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of the Right to a Trial within a Reasonable Time 2017-2022 notes that even then, the responsiveness of the courts had significantly deteriorated.
"The judiciary has failed to achieve the goal of reducing the number of backlogged cases, which was envisaged by the Action Plan for the Implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy, because, instead of decreasing, the number of such cases increased by as much as 49,5 percent compared to the set goal," the HRA report states.
Although it is emphasized that the significant deterioration in the efficiency of the judiciary in 2022 was contributed by the lack of vacancies in judges during 2021 and 2022, it is also emphasized that it should be borne in mind that Montenegro is still the second in the number of judges in Europe, with twice the number of judges than the European average.
"Careful analysis should examine whether other indicators may indicate that weaker human resource and case management in the courts than previously was the case contributed to the decline in timeliness," the HRA report added.
The disruption in the work of the courts due to the COVID-19 epidemic and the lawyers' strike, it is stated, did not have a visible impact on the deterioration of the promptness of the work of the courts; on the contrary, in those two years there was a decrease in the number of new cases (inflow).
This year there are even more of them
The Judicial Council (JC) report from last year states that at the end of 2024, there were 6907 cases older than three years. The Supreme Court document shows that this number increased further in the first three months of this year, so the number of unresolved old cases at the end of March this year was 7.471.
The Supreme Court document states that most old unresolved cases, at the end of last year, lasted from three to five years, just over 69 percent, while those that were six to 10 years old accounted for just over 24 percent of unresolved cases, and cases that lasted from 11 to 15 years accounted for just over five percent. There are also 93 cases older than 16 years.
The document adds that the High Court in Podgorica had the most unresolved old cases (2.457), followed by the Basic Court in Kotor (702) and the Commercial Court (685), and the smallest court in Kolašin (24).
It states that the primary task of all courts is to reduce the number of old cases by 30 to 35 percent by the end of this year, and that the focus of responsibility lies with the presidents of basic and higher courts, as well as the Commercial Court, because the largest number of cases falls under the jurisdiction of these courts (6.831), or as much as 91,5 percent.
"Individual courts did not have clear methods and measures for prioritizing the oldest cases. If they did have them in some way and took them, in practice they did not produce results in order to continuously reduce the number of old cases and bring them to a reasonable level," they point out in a document drafted by the Supreme Court in June of this year.
The Supreme Court document also cites as reasons for the increase in backlogs that more than 120 judges have left the court system in the last five years, the COVID pandemic, the lawyers' strike, but also outdated and inefficient work processes in the courts.
It is noted that court presidents should take responsibility for the implementation of set goals and the organization of the work of courts, in order to be more efficient.
Parties died, judges changed, the Constitutional Court returned decisions
The Program for Resolving Old Cases states that, based on reports from judges who have cases older than 10 years in their work, the conclusion is that one of the main reasons influencing the length of the procedure is that the largest number of cases were suspended at one time - due to the death of parties, changes in judges, etc.
"It has also been noted that in a certain number of cases, case files have been in the Special State Prosecutor's Office or another court for a long time, and that cases have been adjudicated, decisions have been final, revisions have been adopted and rejected, but the revision decisions have been overturned by a decision of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro on several occasions, so the cases have been returned for retrial," the judges' opinion reads.
It is added that the length of the procedure is also affected by parties who are foreign citizens, and that it is "often a challenge" to find their exact address, as well as persons for whom an international arrest warrant has been issued.
The length of the procedure, they add, is often influenced by complex expert opinions, which are necessary, including the harmonization of different expert opinions.
"It is interesting that in one case, a large volume of evidence and documentary evidence had to be translated from Finnish, and in Montenegro, as in the countries of the region, there is no authorized interpreter for the same."
Popović Kalezić states that the backlog and deterioration in promptness are not new in the Montenegrin judiciary, and their causes are multiple: from lack of staff, complexity of cases, to procedural barriers and organizational shortcomings.
"In addition, we often encounter problems with inadequate infrastructure and digitalization, which further slows down the process," says the director of CEGAS.
Although there are efforts to improve the situation, she adds, such as introducing new legal mechanisms, modernizing court procedures, and projects to speed up proceedings, it is clear that these steps have not yet yielded sufficiently visible results.
"Justice, which has been awaited for a long time, is often denied, and more urgent and decisive action by the competent institutions is necessary," Popović Kalezić appeals.
The Supreme Court told CIN-CG that the key to the full implementation of the Program is to fill the judicial and advisory staff in the courts, as well as to allocate staff so that the most complex and oldest cases are resolved through an expedited procedure.
"At the same time, regular supervision and evaluation, or systemic control of case monitoring, has begun to be implemented, which includes monthly reports from court presidents and quarterly reporting by the President of the Supreme Court on the results achieved, which will result in timely correction of measures, if necessary," the Supreme Court said.
They also emphasize that it is necessary to increase the salaries of judges and other court employees.
They say that the formation of an Operational Team to monitor the implementation of the Program is currently underway.
The Supreme Court of Montenegro plans to conduct an audit of the work of the courts by the end of this year, and the focus of the audit will be on resolving old cases and protecting citizens' rights to a trial within a reasonable time.
They remind us that this court is also missing three judges.
"This Program can reverse the negative trend and restore citizens' trust in the judiciary, and 2027 can be the year for Montenegro when "red envelopes" will be a thing of the past," they say in the Supreme Court.
The state paid millions because the verdicts were not enforced for more than a decade
The report on the work of the office of the representative of Montenegro before the Court in Strasbourg for 2024 shows that the state, based on the judgments rendered against Montenegro, was supposed to pay slightly over 6.400.000 euros, the largest part of which relates to the claims of 605 workers of "Radoje Dakić", and the state was ordered to implement, within three months, final and enforceable decisions of domestic courts rendered in favor of the workers, which domestic courts have not implemented for more than ten years.
Last year, the European Court of Human Rights issued nine judgments against Montenegro, eight of which related to violations of the right to a trial within a reasonable time (execution proceedings, bankruptcy proceedings and administrative-judicial proceedings) and six decisions, all of which related to violations of the right to a trial within a reasonable time (administrative-judicial proceedings and proceedings before the Constitutional Court of Montenegro).
Peković explains that the Government, at the proposal of the Office of the Advocate, has made recommendations to the Constitutional Court, with the aim of reducing the length of proceedings before that court.
"As a result of the recommendations, the average duration of constitutional appeal proceedings before that court in 2024 and 2025 was reduced to one year and 8 months."
She adds that recommendations have been given to both the Administrative and Commercial Courts with the aim of reducing the length of bankruptcy proceedings.
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