On April 1 and 2, 2016 the Working Group on Implementation of the Unified Backlog Reduction Plan (hereinafter: BLR WG), led by the President of Supreme Court of Cassation, Chief Justice Dragomir Milojevic, met to discuss a number of issues related to its past and previous activities and actions undertaken by the courts:
The meeting was supported by the MDTF-JSS, as its approved support to the Supreme Court of Cassation in this area, but also as a response to the SCC wish to have an extended continuous two-day meeting outside its seat.
The first day of the meeting was dedicated to analysis of results of the actions taken in 2015. In line with the recommendations issued by the BLR Working Group, during 2015 first instance courts were mainly focused on reducing the oldest cases: older than five and older than 10 years.
In basic courts, the number of cases older than five years was reduced by 4%, and the number of cases older than 10 years by 12%; in higher courts the number of cases older than five years was reduced by 3%, and the number of cases older than 10 years by 14%; in commercial courts the number of cases older than 10 years was reduced by 9%, but the number of cases older than five years rose by 17% (the increase was caused by bankruptcy cases).
There were 4,973,951 pending cases before all Serbian courts in 2015. This number comprises court enforcement cases: in total, there were 2,173,815 of these cases before basic and commercial courts. For the purposes of this report, court enforcement cases were extracted from further analysis:
In 2015 there were 1,397,240 cases before the courts of general jurisdiction, out of which number 455,205 remain unresolved at the end of the year. The number includes all unresolved cases, regardless of their duration, i.e. age. This number comprises 112,510 cases which are, according to the current Serbian legislation, considered as backlog cases (all cases in which the proceedings last longer than two years from the initial filing). With this number of backlog cases basic, higher and appellate courts entered 2016.
In 2015 there were 1,402,896 cases before the courts of specialized jurisdiction (Administrative Court, commercial and misdemeanor courts), out of which number 638,227 remain unresolved at the end of the year. Commercial courts (including Commercial Appellate Court) and Administrative Court completed 2015 with 9,517 backlog cases in total (the proceedings last longer than two years from the initial filing).
The largest backlog remains in enforcement cases in basic courts. During 2015 there were in total 2,173,815 enforcement cases in courts (basic and commercial courts). Out of this number, there were 110,798 cases before commercial courts, 2,063,017 before basic courts. Commercial courts ended 2015 with 53,164 unresolved enforcement cases, out of which 32,180 are considered backlog cases; in basic courts there were 1,740,023 unresolved enforcement cases, out of which 1,574,855 cases as backlog.
Most of the WG members noted there were large discrepancies in workloads of first-instance courts’ judges dealing with criminal and civil cases: the inflow of criminal cases has been decreasing steadily for two years in a row, whereas the inflow of civil cases continuously grows (this growth being affected also by the amendments of current and introduction of new legislation which broadened the jurisdiction of 1st instance civil courts). They also noted that only a few court presidents reacted to this discrepancy by transferring judges from criminal into civil department, despite last year’s WG recommendation to court presidents to carefully analyze the workload before adopting annual workplan and assigning judges to court departments.
The WG members also noted a striking backlog management phenomenon: most of basic courts’ backlog cases are (re)assigned to newly appointed judges – those who took their offices in 2014 and 2015. For example, 70% of all backlogs in the courts of Nis Appellate Court jurisdiction are with judges appointed within past year…
The WG invited donor community representatives to attend the second day of the meeting and present their plans on assisting courts in backlog reduction effort in 2016 onward. The WG insisted that in 2016 donor organizations and projects should focus on assisting courts in implementation of the new Law on Enforcement and Security, i.e. transfer of cases from the courts to the public enforcement agents, given that enforcement backlog is the vastest majority of all backlog.
During the 2nd meeting day the WG also assessed the next steps to be taken regarding the revision of the Unified BLR Plan, prescribed by the Action Plan for Chapter 23 to take place bz the 2nd quarter of 2016. It has been decided that the members of the WG and the SCC would carry out a number of analyses before amending the BLR Plan. By 15 June 2016, the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Working Group shall:
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Assess the quality of individual courts’ BLR programs and adequacy of individually undertaken internal and external measures
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Assess the activities related to the oldest cases (first instance civil cases older than 10 years and the first-instance criminal cases older than 5 years)
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Review statistics on resolving old cases per courts and per materiae.
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Assess the workload of judges per materiae and workload of backlog cases in the courts in individual subject matters and compare them with the average number of cases that have been resolved by the judge and on that basis to assess the adequacy of the annual work schedule of judges in courts in matters
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To assess the effects of policy measures taken
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Analyze the impact of the new network of courts in resolving old cases
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Assess the effects of defected ''migration '' of cases and the reliability of statistical data in basic and higher courts
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Analyze the impact of the lawyers’ strike in 2014 and 2015 on the dynamics of BLR efforts
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Assess the impact of reducing the number of employees in the courts to carry out the responsibilities of the courts and the increasing number of cases due to the constant expansion of the jurisdiction of courts based on special laws
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Assess the effects of system solutions taken by the executive authorities to resolve disputes (for example, between users of military pension or employees in the Ministry of Interior ...) on the course of court proceedings (postponement of cases in anticipation of new legislation, intervention effects executive authorities on process streamlining, resolving constitutional appeals before the constitutional Court), or harmonization of court practice
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Pass a conclusion on the justification of the introduction of new standard applications to manage cases in all courts in the Republic
According to analyzes conducted, the Supreme Court of Cassation and the BLR Working Group will bring a conclusion on the scope and direction of changes of the Unified BLR Plan and the Special Program for the solution of old enforcement cases (i.e. Mini Strategy).
Updated: April 6, 2016
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On April 1 and 2, 2016 the Working Group on Implementation of the Unified Backlog Reduction Plan (hereinafter: BLR WG), led by the President of Supreme Court of Cassation, Chief Justice Dragomir Milojevic, met to discuss a number of issues related to its past and previous activities and actions undertaken by the courts:
