On Friday, 11 September, the Minister of Justice Jānis Bordāns will participate in the 24th top level meeting of the government of Latvia and Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia (FICIL). Including, in order to discuss about sustaining of the rule of law, efficiency of the judicial system and positive trend with regard to decrease of the time periods for examination of cases.
Jānis Bordāns, Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice: “Thanks to the common work of the government, the time periods for examination of cases decrease. However, the work should be continued on both, quality increase of examination of cases as well as neutralization of reasons with regard to the criminal cases, which last for years. I hope that the new Prosecutor General and the Chairman of the Supreme Court will help me. Therefore, during the meeting with the Foreign Investors' Council in Latvia I will talk also about expansion of the Council for Prevention of Crime and planned works.”
During the recent one and a half year the average time period for examination of civil cases in the first court instance has decreased by almost 20% or from 9.3 to 7.7 months, but in criminal cases it has decreased by 15% or from 6.4 to 5.4 months. In comparison with 2015, the average duration of civil cases has decreased almost by one third.
The average durations of examination continue to decrease also in the courts of the second instance. During the recent one ad a half year the average time periods for examination of criminal cases in accordance with the appellate procedure has decreased by 10%, but in terms of perspective of five years - by 25% and currently is 3.3 months. The average duration of examination of civil cases, in comparison with 2018, has remained unchanged (4.2 months), but it is still by at least 2 months shorter than it was in 2015 (has decreased by almost 40%).
At the same time the Ministry of Justice would like to mention that the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the average time periods of trials of criminal cases will be visible at the end of the current year, as far as currently the courts examine those cases (mostly criminal cases, requiring a verbal proceeding), the trial of which was postponed during the first half of the year. In accordance with the estimates of the Ministry of Justice, in the perspective of a year, the average time periods for trial of criminal cases could be on the level of 2019.
The reduction of duration for civil cases is to be explained with the fact that due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis the possibilities to examine cases by written procedure were expanded. Considering that, this regulation was preserved in the law.