Number of courts and prosecutors' offices to be reduced to improve service

The main objective of the bills on the territorial jurisdictions and seats of courts and of prosecutors' offices is to improve service to the public and increase their efficiency, Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic told a Cabinet meeting on Thursday while presenting the bills.
 

It takes Croatian courts 460 days on average to hand down a first-instance verdict, while the EU average is just 72 days, the minister said. Croatia is the second EU country with the largest number of judges, while at the same time it has a completely uneven distribution of court cases, as a result of which citizens do not get good enough service, he added.

The bill on courts proposes reorganisation of the network of municipal and misdemeanour courts by dividing Croatia into 15 judicial districts. The present number of 15 county courts would remain unchanged, while the number of municipal courts would be reduced from 67 to 23 and that of misdemeanour courts from 61 to 21. In that way, 44 municipal courts would be closed as of January 1, 2015 and 40 misdemeanour courts as of July 1, 2015, and would become permanent services.

The bill on prosecutors' offices, in coordination with the bill on courts, proposes reducing the number of municipal prosecutors' offices from the present 33 to 21, while the present number of 15 county prosecutors' offices would remain unchanged.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said that the two bills were part of the reform process.

(Hina)
 

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