25 judges have confirmed the possibility to apply for the planned ten positions of judges in the Court of Economic Cases - shows results of the survey. The Ministry of Justice conducted the survey of judges in cooperation of the Court Administration during the time period from 6 to 14 February 2020.
“In circumstances, when the opponents of the Court of Economic Cases intentionally aggravate the differences in opinions or even distributes misleading information, the decision regarding the possibility to apply for the office of a judge in the Court of Economic Cases is not simple. The Ministry of Justice will perform everything possible in order the qualification increase programmes would be available for judges of the Court of Economic Cases, according to the nature of competence of the court," emphasizes J.Bordāns.
The necessary measures for commencement of selection of judges will be performed after adoption of amendments to the Law on Judicial Power and determination of the procedure for selection of candidates for the office of judge. Qualification improvement measures will be provided to the candidates selected in accordance with the procedure of competition. It is planned that the Court of Economic Cases will commence it work on 1 January 2021.
As a reason not to apply for the work in the Court of Economic Cases, judges mention the following arguments - the current work and specialisation satisfies, it is not necessary to change the place of residence, insufficient experience in cases planned within the competence of the Court of Economic Cases etc. Only 39 surveyed judges do not consider the establishment of such court as useful.
In total 217 judges participated in the survey - 142 from district (city) courts and 52 from regional courts, 16 from the Administrative District Court and 7 from Administrative Regional Court.
The draft law regarding establishment of the Court of Economic Cases still needs to be adopted by the Saeima in the final reading.