The High Judicial Council has partially accepted the request of the High Inspector of Justice for a disciplinary measure against magistrate Sh. L., regarding repeated delays in the disclosure of judicial decisions. The proposal of the HIJ for the imposition of the disciplinary measure “Temporary salary reduction of up to 40 percent, for a period not exceeding one year”, was partially accepted, the disciplinary violation being acknowledged and the disciplinary measure “Public reprimand” being imposed on the judge.
The disciplinary investigation against Sh.L., a judge at the Court of First Instance, General Jurisdiction of Saranda, was initiated based on 12 complaints for delays in the disclosure of reasoned decisions by the judge, disciplinary violations provided for by article 102, point 1, letter “d” of law no. 96/2016 “On the status of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania”, as amended.
The voluminous investigation report of the HIJ inspectors, with two joint proceedings and an additional subject of investigation for the judge, identified repeated delays in the disclosure of decisions exceeding the legal deadline of up to 4 years, decisions belonging to the period of 2021, 2022, 2023. The report of HIJ inspectors report concluded that actions/inactions were taken by the magistrate in violation of the civil and criminal procedural deadlines for the reasoning of the judicial decision, exceeding the deadlines beyond any logic, where the failure to comply with the legal deadlines does not appear as an isolated episode, but as a repeated pattern in three consecutive years and in proportions outside any legal and professional standard regarding deadlines. The systematic and repeated delay beyond these deadlines constitutes a clear indicator of non-compliance with functional responsibilities.
Despite the magistrate’s submissions regarding the workload and the state of the judicial system, the analysis of the situation showed that he has not fully and consistently fulfilled the legal and functional obligations imposed on him for the reasoning and timely delivery of judicial decisions.
The investigative report notes that the judge’s disciplinary violation has resulted in failure to timely obtain the expected product from the adjudication of a particular case, delays in exercising the right to appeal or even significant delays in the execution of the judicial decision, as a result of the failure to reason the decisions in a timely manner, i.e. a denial of justice.
Taking into account the limited 5 years of experience in the system, the High Inspector of Justice concluded that the actions/inactions undertaken by magistrate Sh.L. constitute a “Serious disciplinary violation” and proposed to the High Judicial Council the imposition of the disciplinary measure “Temporary salary reduction of up to 40 percent, for a period not longer than one year”, provided for by article 105, point 1, letter “c”, section “i” and article 108 of law no. 96/2016 “On the status of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania”, as amended. The High Council of Justice partially accepted the disciplinary violation and imposed the measure “Public reprimand” against judge Sh. L.
