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CSM didn't thoroughly assess how cases are distributed in courts, report


https://www.ipn.md/index.php/en/csm-didnt-thoroughly-assess-how-cases-are-distributed-in-courts-report-7978_1005184.html

Most of the courts in Moldova do not use the program of aleatory distribution of cases, even if such a decision aplying to criminal and civil cases was adopted in 2006. In a report by the Legal Resources Center, it is said that until 2013 the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) carried out no thorough assessment of the way the cases are distributed, despite the fact that it must fulfill such a duty, IPN reports.

The report "Transparency and efficiency of the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM) of Moldova: 2010-2012” says that the integrated case management porgram enables the court president to manually distribute the cases and the automated distribution by the computer. It seems that the use of the option of automated distribution was left at the discretion of the court president.

The report authors say that the aleatory distribution rule is not obeyed. The CSM stipulated in a decision that the cases at the Chisinau Court of Appeals and at the Ceadir-Lunga Court weren't distributed aleatorily. Even if the CSM was informed about these deviations, no relevant decision was taken. The institution of disciplinary proceedings is an instrument for influencing the CSM so as to remedy this situation.

In five orders to institute disciplinary proceedings made in 2010, there was invoked the non-observance of the orders on the aleatory distribution of cases, while in 2011 the figure rose to ten. The annual reports of the CSM do not cleary say how many of these orders resulted in the imposition of disciplinary punishments.

The Legal Resources Center recommends the CSM to take radical and tough measures to ensure the observance of the provisions concerning the aleatory distribution of cases in courts .