For almost ten months, there has been no judge in the Basic Court in Žabljak, which is why citizens suffer the most, who have to travel to neighboring cities for trials, considering that cases are assigned to courts in other municipalities, mostly the Basic Court in Pljevlje.
Žabljak has been without the last judge since the beginning of October last year, after he was the then president of the court and the only judge Mihailo Andjelic retired.
Anđelić worked alone in Žabljak for a long time, after the retirement of the judge Milovan Jovković.
The Judicial Council did not directly respond to Vijesti's question when the issue of the lack of judicial staff in Žabljak will be resolved, except that they currently have 33 candidates for basic court judges undergoing training.
They did not state whether there are candidates among them who are interested in working in the Basic Court in Žabljak.
"In relation to the questions you sent to the Judicial Council, we can tell you that at the moment we have 33 candidates for judges of basic courts in training (20 candidates were previously selected), and recently another 13 candidates were sent - the decisions were made at the sessions of the 8th and On June 18, which you can see in the announcements after those sessions", the Secretariat of the Judicial Council replied to News.
They said that based on the amendments to the Law on the Judicial Council and Judges, the training for selected candidates for basic courts now lasts 12 months, six months less than before.
And for candidates who were elected on the basis of the old law, the training will last the same 12 months.
"After the initial training and determination of the evaluation from the same, the Judicial Council makes a decision on their selection as judges and their distribution to basic courts according to their position on the ranking lists," the answer states.
Nine employees are employed in the Basic Court in Žabljak, and in the absence of a president, the work of the court in Žabljak is currently being coordinated by the president of the High Court in Bijelo Polje.
The Judicial Council points out that the problem of the lack of judges is not only expressed in the Basic Court in Žabljak.
"At the moment, 39 judges for basic courts are missing. As the initial training was shortened to 12 months, we expect that these missing judge positions will also be filled", said the Judicial Council.
On the other hand, in the Plan for the rationalization of the court network, recently prepared by the Ministry of Justice, it is stated that Montenegrin courts have 50 percent more judges than the European average.
That document envisages the abolition of the Basic Court in Žabljak and Danilovgrad.
"This Plan envisages the abolition of small unsustainable basic courts in Žabljak and Danilovgrad, with the simultaneous establishment of court departments at the basic courts in Pljevlja and Podgorica, and in the area of the municipalities of Žabljak and Danilovgrad. When developing this Plan, the fact that there is no judge in the Basic Court in Žabljak as of September 2023, and that cases from the said court have been delegated to the Basic Court in Pljevlja, has been taken into account. Also, there has been no interest in candidates for judges for the Basic Court in Žabljak for a long time. Practice has shown that candidates for judges do not choose the Basic Court in Žabljak as the court in which they will perform their judicial functions, which leads to the fact that the judicial positions in this court remain unfilled. Bearing in mind this circumstance related to human resources and court management, and for the purpose of efficiency, this Plan for the rationalization of the judicial network foresees the abolition of the Basic Court in Žabljak, as a transitional measure, and the establishment of a department of the Basic Court in Pljevlja in the territory of the municipality of Žabljak", it is stated. in the explanation of the proposal to abolish the court in Žabljak.
The short distance from Podgorica is cited as an argument for abolishing the Basic Court in Danilovgrad.
"The fact that the Basic Court in Danilovgrad is only 17 kilometers away from Podgorica, and that the road infrastructure between these two municipalities has been improved, influenced that the rationalization is carried out in the direction of abolishing this court. It is important to note that the Basic Court in Podgorica does not currently have adequate spatial capacities, as a result of which a temporary department of the Basic Court in Podgorica will be established in the municipality of Danilovgrad. Also, the unofficial results of the population census from 2023, which show the influx of population in the municipality of Podgorica, were taken into account," the document states.
Due to the merger of the Basic Courts of Žabljak and Pljevlja, current annual expenses would be reduced by 66.178 euros, and 54.090 euros due to the merger of the Basic Courts of Danilovgrad and Podgorica.
"This is mainly the result of the lack of a president (that is, the salary of the president) and partly of technical secretaries. Smaller investments needed to merge courts EUR 20.000 for changes to IT infrastructure, increased annual travel costs of EUR 6.000 will be amortized after a short period of time and after that annual savings of EUR 120.269 (IT costs spread over a period of five years) or approx. 124.000 euros per year on a long-term basis without individual IT costs", the Court Network Rationalization Plan concludes.
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