Minister Kolíková really caught it behind the court map: A former colleague embarked on it, harsh criticism – Topky.sk

At the same time, Meravý himself admits that he has not yet paid detailed attention to the reform of the court map. However, everything changed after the reform began to provoke contradictions between coalition partners and also in the professional public.

“I put in the effort and, despite the flu, I studied the latest comparative analysis of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) from 2020, as well as a slightly older OECD analysis from 2013. In 2011, as an analyst at MSSR under Minister Lucie Žitňanská worked with forensic statistics, so I’m not completely incompetent in this area. ” claims.

He first looked at the merging of district courts in smaller cities. According to him, this would make sense if their excessive fragmentation would lead to inefficiency. “According to the CEPEJ analysis, however, the number of district courts in Slovakia is not a problem, nor is their overall occupancy. On the contrary, the number of first-instance courts per 100,000 inhabitants is relatively low in Slovakia, reaching only 1.2,” stated.

Source: Facebook / Tomáš Meravý

He added that for comparison, Germany reaches the same number. “It is 0.8 in the Czech Republic, 1.4 in Hungary, 1.7 in Austria, 2.4 in France and 4.1 in Switzerland. In Slovakia today we have 54 district courts and 8 regional courts. In Austria, whose judiciary has an excellent reputation, there are 116 district courts, 20 provincial courts and 4 high provincial courts. So today we do not have an extremely large number of those courts in Slovakia compared to other countries. On the contrary, “ he thinks.

Source: Topky / Ján Zemiar

A proper galimatiáš

He also focused on the issue of occupancy of district courts. He argues that in the civil, commercial and criminal agenda, first-instance courts in Slovakia do not deviate in any way from the European median, whether it is the idea of ​​cases, the handling of cases or the length of proceedings. “With the exception of the merger of courts in Bratislava and Košice, which seems to make sense, I see no reason why we should merge, abolish and relocate district courts in Slovakia,” stated.

Source: Topky / Vlado Anjel

According to him, the proposed radical reorganization of the judiciary unnecessarily divides society, but it would also disrupt the work of courts and judges and worsen the accessibility of courts for the people of the regions. “It is not clear to me in the end how this reorganization is to break the ties. Do we want to say that a mobster can’t use a car and a telephone?” he is asking.

“The proposal to merge the regional courts into courts of appeal to me has a similar impression as the merger of the district courts: as a proper galimatiáš. according to OECD analyzes, an extremely high percentage of court cases end in first instance courts in Slovakia, “ concluded.

Source: Topky / Vlado Anjel

Trade unionists also have Boris Kollár’s objections

The reform of the court map presupposes the reorganization of regional and district courts as well as the establishment of municipal courts in Košice and Bratislava. The number of districts of district courts is to be reduced from 54 to 30. It also provides for the creation of three administrative courts.

However, changes in the court map from the workshop of Minister Mária Kolíková meet with strong disagreement. Last week, members of the Basic Organization of the Trade Union of Judicial Employees at the Regional Court in Bratislava also protested against it directly in front of the Ministry, demanding that the current situation be maintained.

Source: Topky – Maarty

In addition, it also became another firebox in the already tense atmosphere in the coalition. Speaker of Parliament and Party We are a family Boris Kollár in its current form refuses to support it. And even at the cost of leaving the coalition.