In a recurring situation, the High Judicial Council is exceeding the legal deadlines for appointing 42 new magistrates to office due to delays in parallel moves and promotions, while the number of cases waiting to be reviewed is increasing.
In a recurring situation, the High Judicial Council has been holding hostage for almost 3 months the appointment of 42 new magistrates graduated from the School of Magistrates, despite the lack of judges in the system and the ever-growing backlog of cases.
Although it appointed the magistrates on July 31, the Supreme Court of Justice has not yet made it possible to distribute them across the courts, while there are currently 99 vacancies in the judicial system.
“It's an information nightmare,” one of the newly graduated magistrates told BIRN on condition of anonymity. A second magistrate also said, without wanting to be named, that he was worried about not being assigned to the post.
The magistrates claimed that the High Judicial Council is acting in violation of the law "On the status of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Albania", by not reflecting on past violations regarding the same problem.
The Law “On the Status of Judges and Prosecutors…” sets a one-month deadline for the Councils to appoint to office any person who is on the list of graduates and who meets the criteria for appointment.
Meanwhile, Article 39 of the same law obliges the KLGJ to announce the vacancies within June of each year, while magistrates have two weeks to choose three courts as their preferences. In point 2 of this article, it is stipulated that, within July of each year, each Council publishes its decisions on the appointment of appointees to the vacant positions for magistrates.
The High Judicial Council told BIRN that it had appointed the magistrates within the deadline provided by law, but their assignment to the courts will have to await the parallel transfer and promotion procedures of current judges.
"Only after the completion of these procedures, the Council can announce the vacancies for the appointees. Currently, the Council has successfully concluded a number of procedures and is still in the process of several others, not considering this process to be completed yet," the KLGJ stated.
According to the Council, immediately upon the creation of vacancies, in accordance with legal provisions, vacancies for the appointees will be announced. The KLGj also announced that it has recognized the right to payment for graduated magistrates in previous years.
The KLJ's version is also supported by voluntary groups of judges.
The acting president of the National Association of Judges of the Republic of Albania, Judge Engert Pëllumbi, told BIRN that, from the information he had from the Supreme Judicial Council regarding the failure to take office of 42 new magistrates, he learned that the procedure for their appointment is nearing completion and is expected to be completed within this week.
According to Pëllumbi, this situation is not a lack of will, but comes as a result of procedural bureaucracy from legal and sub-legal acts, given that the appointment of magistrates to the position comes last in line, after the promotion and parallel movement of judges who are already part of the system.
"So, the appointment is made taking into account the vacancies that are created after promotions and parallel transfers. It should be kept in mind that we are still in an abnormal situation, when the Courts of Appeal and the capital's court and those of nearby districts need to be filled, and then the remaining positions are offered to new magistrates," said Pëllumbi.
The head of the Albanian Judges’ Union, Gerd Hoxha, told BIRN that the Union has been closely following this situation for some time and has shared its concerns with the new magistrates and members of the Supreme Judicial Council on a daily basis. “To our knowledge, the Supreme Judicial Council will proceed as quickly as possible with their final appointment, within this month, but this is related to parallel movements, which, due to the law, require their own time,” Hoxha said.
Hoxha underlined that an urgent request is to amend the law on the status of magistrates, which, according to him, provides for slowing down rules for their parallel moves and promotions.
Vacancies and stocks
The vetting process removed more than half of the magistrates from the system. As a result, numerous vacancies were created in the courts that have remained unfilled for years.
According to data made available by the Supreme Court of Kosovo, the organizational structure for all courts provides for 417 judges. The current factual structure results in 308 appointed judges, of whom 265 are effectively in office.
The Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction, which should have 78 judges, is in a more dramatic situation. Currently, 33 judges are appointed to this court, of which 31 are effectively in office. Filling the 45 vacancies that exist in this court alone through promotion would enable the creation of sufficient vacancies in the First Instance courts for the appointment of 42 new magistrates.
Based on the data of the Supreme Court of Justice, there are currently 21 vacancies in the First Instance Courts of General Jurisdiction, not including career courts.
Meanwhile, statistical data also shows an increase in the number of cases remaining in the backlog. From 137,101 cases that were pending on January 1, 2024, their number increased to 141,262 cases on September 30, 2025. The situation is more dramatic in the Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction, where the number of cases expected to be reviewed has exceeded 45 thousand. /BIRN/
