The Superior Council of Magistracy elected the presidents of ten of the 15 common law courts that will start work on January 1, 2017, when the Law on the Reorganization of Courts of Law takes effect. Also, the Council chose a number of vice presidents at these courts. The information was presented by the Council’s chairman Victor Micu in a press briefing, IPN reports.
Victor Micu said that when the law comes into force, the judicial map will be optimized by merging a number of district or sector courts of law into regional courts. For example, all the district courts of Chisinau municipality will be merged into the Chisinau Court of Law. Also, the Briceni, Donduseni and Ocnita Courts will join with the Edinet Court into the Edinet Court.
The Superior Council of Magistracy elected the presidents of the courts in Balti, Cahul, Cimislia, Drochia, Straseni, Hancesti, Orhei, Criuleni, Soroca, and Ungheni. For the other five courts, including the Chisinau Court, new contests were announced as no candidate applied to take part in the previous contests or the candidates didn’t garner the necessary number of votes. The selected candidates will be presented to the Head of State for confirmation.
The 15 newly created courts of law will remain for now in the old head offices. New buildings will start to be erected in 2027. The Chisinau Court will be based at the Botanica Court for now.
The law does not modify the number of judges and does not reorganize the appeals courts or the Supreme Court of Justice and refers only to the number of common law courts. However, Victor Micu said layoffs will follow, but among the technical personnel and assistant judges.
