Members of the High Council of Justice Vitalii Salikhov, Oksana Blazhivska and Inna Plakhtii took part in a regular meeting of the working group on appropriate financing of the judiciary in Ukraine at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Legal Policy.
The participants of the working group discussed, in particular, the concept of a draft law aimed at regulating the status of an assistant judge and simplifying the procedure for selecting judges to overcome the shortage of personnel, including at the account of assistant judges.
According to the Acting Chairman of the HCJ Vitalii Salikhov, the draft law should provide that when selecting candidates for the position of a judge, priority should be given to assistant judges, because during their work in courts they gain knowledge and practical skills and do not need additional training in the National School of Judges of Ukraine. The member of the HCJ noted the need of shortening to one month the training period for candidates for the position of a judge from among assistant judges.
“It is no need to train 2–3 years an assistant who has been working in court for 5–6 years and sees him/herself as a judge. During work in court, the professional and moral qualities of a person were checked. By giving preferences to assistants, we will solve the problem of staffing the judicial system. It is necessary to give as much assistance as possible to those who have four or five years of work experience in court, to pass tests in all areas of law in a month,” Vitalii Salikhov said.
The member of the HCJ also emphasized: “We insist on the impossibility of human factor influence when checking the tasks of qualification exams. The experience of Poland should be applied – the use of a multiple choice testing system.”
As Vitalii Salikhov noted, it is the High Council of Justice that is the body responsible for the formation of an honest, highly professional, independent corps of judges.
Thus, taking into account the comments of the HCJ, it is advisable to provide for the following in the draft law:
- when appointing judges to give preference to assistant judges with at least 4–5 years of experience, and to the quota principle of their appointment, namely, about 50% of the total number;
- shortening to one month of training period for candidates for the position of a judge from among assistant judges;
- passing the final exam in the form of computer testing without involving teachers in checking the results of exams.
The HCJ member Oksana Blazhivska noted that the Council generally supports the preparation of such a draft law, which would simplify the procedures for selecting judges in order to overcome shortage of personnel and save financial resources of the state.
Oksana Blazhivska also supported position, which she repeatedly noted, regarding the quota principle of filling positions of judges, according to which half of the posts should belong to persons with relevant experience – assistant judges.
In addition, the HCJ member agreed with the fact that in order to shorten duration of the competitive procedures and comply with the principle of fairness, the human factor should be completely eliminated from the process of practical tasks checking. In particular, a candidate should be offered factual allegations and answers to choose the most correct one.
“Any legislative proposal must be developed taking into account the fact that the law will be applied in the complex conditions of martial law and after war. Understanding the scope of the need for the number of judges (in terms of instance and specialization) will be formed gradually, since the society should form a request for the number of judges in each particular region,” Oksana Blazhivska noted.
The proposed draft law in the proposed wording provides for long-term training of candidates with scholarships. According to Oksana Blazhivska, in today's conditions it will be difficult for the state to fulfill this norm. She noted that the training program for assistant judges should be shortened to a month. In addition, in order to save budgetary funds, training should not provide for monetary compensation to candidates. A prerequisite should also be the need to check the candidate's level of proficiency in the state language.
Member of the HCJ Inna Plakhtii supported these comments on the draft law and noted that the opinions of the Consultative Council of European Judges only provide for test tasks and there are no recommendations for writing draft decisions when passing the exam.
Inna Plakhtii also noted that the sequence of candidate selection stages provided for by the draft law needs to be finalized. In her opinion, after the submission of documents by candidates, it is advisable to train them at the National School of Judges of Ukraine, after which a two-level exam and an interview should be held.
In addition, as noted by the member of the HCJ, the proposed document does not provide for a solution to the issue of completing the selection of candidates for the position of judge in 2019.
During the meeting, Vitalii Salikhov also stressed that currently the problem of paying remuneration to jurors for their performance of duties in court requires an urgent solution.
The member of the HCJ informed that the court, where the so-called Maidan case has been under consideration for eight years, has been addressing the HCJ for two months. The debate stage is currently underway, after which the judges will go to the deliberation room.
For seven months, jurors are not paid funds in connection with classification of such payments according to the legislation in the fourth-ranking, although this is actually the payment for the work of a judge, since in the administration of justice a juror is equal in status to a judge.
The HCJ, together with the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine, applied to the State Treasury Service of Ukraine on this matter.
Vitalii Salikhov urged the meeting participants to influence this situation within their powers, to finance the jury and to complete the consideration of cases of significant public and political importance.
“If the term of the jury expires, a judge will be forced to consider the case from the very beginning. We are approached by many courts where jurors do not receive funds at all,” Vitalii Salikhov said.
Discussing other current issues of financing the judiciary and ways to resolve the problematic issues of court financing, Oksana Blazhivska proposed to the working group participants for discussion a proposal to amend the court fee payment model, namely, to provide for the return to the court’s account immediately after the payment of the court fee of a certain amount of funds that could be directed to meet the urgent needs of the court.
Based on the results of the meeting, the participants of the working group will summarize their proposals for the discussed initiatives for further consideration.