The whole of Europe is suffering from court delays and there is no country at the moment that would not have problems with this issue at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, Prime Minister Robert Fico told the TASR newswire on May 8.
Fico is especially concerned about delays in commercial legal cases that often involve large sums of money. Fico’s Smer party is suggesting that arbitration procedures be used as an alternative.
“We do have this in Slovakia, but people prefer a more complicated and expensive court trial to a decision made by an arbiter, whose ruling has the same effect as a court ruling,” said Fico.
Fico is concerned about the fact that people accuse courts of corruption if they lose a case. In order to resolve such doubts, his party wants to introduce special clearance procedures for judges. This would especially concern judges who deal with serious commercial legal and criminal cases. Their relations with the businesses or various groups that may be at odds with the law would be examined. Fico said that if a future ambassador has to undergo such review for clearance, the same should apply to judges who decide on cases involving €millions or who send people to prison for many years.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
