JUSTICE Minister Štefan Harabin pledges to re-open some of the courts that were shut down under his predecessor Daniel Lipšic as part of the reform of the court system.
Among the district courts that should be re-opened shortly are those in Bánovce nad Bebravou and Malacky, which should start operating again in July. Other courts that should re-open after two years of closure are the district courts in Pezinok and Nové Mesto nad Váhom.
However, according to the ministry’s own statistics, these courts were among the slowest in handling their agendas, the Pravda daily wrote.
While other district courts took an average of five months to rule in alimony cases, for instance, the Nové Mesto nad Váhom court took 10 months to deliver a verdict in such cases, and the court in Malacky 13 months.
“This is an unfortunate step because it re-introduces inefficiency into the system. The previous government partially eliminated this inefficiency through its court reform,” agreed analysts Ján Marušinec and Martin Valentovič from the MESA 10 economic think-tank in Bratislava.
12. Feb 2007 at 7:48