In Ukraine, the situation in the courts of appeal regarding the number of judges is critical. This was stated by the acting head of the Supreme Court, Borys Gulko, during a press conference, an UNN correspondent reports .
The courts of appeal have been critical for quite a long time. No judge has been appointed to the appellate courts for 10 years. In fact, except for Kyiv and the appellate courts of the western region, all our appellate courts are critical. The same goes for the first instance, especially in large cities. If we look at the workload in Kyiv, it is one of the largest in district courts and local courts in Ukraine. This is primarily due to migration processes
Denys Maslov, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Legal Policy, confirmed that the situation with appeals is indeed critical.
“In some courts, if we are talking about the Sumy Court of Appeal or the Kharkiv Court of Appeal, criminal proceedings may be suspended there because the panel may not be formed,” Maslov said.
Maslov generally noted that staff shortages have long been a major problem, leading to delays in the consideration of cases.
“Those judges who are working now are forced to work for three judges instead of two, and this is with an absolutely unsatisfactory level of financial support, first of all, for the judges' offices,” he added.
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The Deputy Head of the Presidential Office , Iryna Mudra, reported that work is underway to create a new court to hear administrative cases.
On December 11 , the High Qualification Commission of Judges announced the selection of candidates for the position of a local court judge. The projected number of vacant judicial positions for which the selection was announced is 1,800.