Odesa Court of Appeal complains about shortage of judges

The Odesa Court of Appeal has asked the High Qualification Commission of Judges of Ukraine (HQCJ) to increase the number of vacant positions from 23 to 27 in the competition announced by the HQCJ back in 2023 to meet the real needs of the court.

According to this appeal, the acceleration of the competition procedures is necessary to fill the vacancies promptly and reduce the workload of judges, according to the Judicial and Legal Newspaper.

The court emphasized that in 2024, the Odesa Court of Appeal received 22,395 cases and materials, the number of judges should be 65 according to the standards, and the actual number of judges is currently only 18.

In 2024, the workload per judge was as follows:

• criminal specialization - 916 cases and materials;
• civil specialization - 537 cases and materials;
• administrative offenses - 205 cases and materials;
• motions on operational and investigative activities and covert investigative actions - 939 materials (considered by 6 criminal judges and 3 civil judges).

According to the court, such a workload exceeds the model indicator set by the Council of Judges, which leads to physical and moral exhaustion of judges, and cannot but affect the efficiency and quality of judicial proceedings. Exceeding the level of workload on a judge creates preconditions for violation of deadlines, lengthy consideration of cases, untimely issuance of court decisions, etc. Judges are currently forced to schedule hearings for the end of 2025 and beyond.

According to the information published quarterly by the COJ, in 2019, the Odesa Court of Appeal received 27,465 cases and materials and accordingly determined the number of 96 judges, in 2020 - 20,784, in 2021 - 21,733, in 2022 - 16,404, in 2023 - 20,961 (third place in terms of the number of cases and materials among general appellate courts), the number of judges according to the standards should be 63 judges.

Кирило Бойко