Citizens' trust in the judiciary has decreased in Montenegro, and the percentage of those who believe that the court process takes an unnecessarily long time has also decreased, it was announced at the final conference of the Center for Monitoring and Research (CeMI).

The President of the Governing Board of CeMI, Zlatko Vujovic, said at the final conference "Results and effects of judicial reform in Montenegro" that during the project "Judicial Reform: Improving the capacity of civil society organizations in contributing to preserving the integrity of the judiciary", that organization conducted research in to which part of the question refers to trust in the judiciary.

"In the survey conducted in March 2020, it was observed that there was a drop in trust in the judiciary, compared to the survey conducted by CeMI in December 2017, from 48 percent to 34 percent." It is noticeable that the percentage of citizens who believe that the court process takes an unnecessarily long time has decreased. So the change came from 69 percent to 51 percent. "18 percent fewer citizens believe that the court process takes an unnecessarily long time," Vujovic said.

According to him, the percentage of citizens who believe that court processes last as long as they should have tripled, from nine to 24 percent in March of this year.

"Although the biggest problem in the work of the courts is considered to be political influence, the decrease in the percentage from 41 percent in December 2017 to 34 percent in March of this year is encouraging. "What is becoming an increasing problem, even as citizens perceive it, is the amount of court costs, where this problem in the functioning of justice in Montenegro represents 23 percent of citizens, up from ten percent in December 2017," said Vujovic.

He believes that the problem is still that the Montenegrin judiciary does not enjoy the necessary level of trust, stating that the remarks noticed by the citizens cannot be ignored "and an institutional response should be prepared for them in some way".

"I hope that in the coming period, in the spirit of consultation and open dialogue with civil society, the Government will open space for the expansion of the Council for Monitoring and Implementation of the Judicial Reform Strategy with representatives of non-governmental organizations, and we welcome the Government's decision to open the Council for the Rule of Law and for Representatives non-governmental organizations and the competition that was announced for that purpose," Vujovic said.

The president of the Supreme Court of Montenegro, Vesna Medenica, said that there are obstacles in achieving the highest possible level of quality judicial system.

"These obstacles are remnants of the previous system, which we are trying to remove in a relatively short time." The cases, which are still active, originate even from the period of the last decade, are a professional stain for us, and also for a system that has been reformed, rejuvenated and strengthened by quality," said Medenica.

According to her, until the oldest cases are resolved, "we cannot say that we are completely satisfied with our work."

"That's why we regularly hold meetings of court presidents in which cases that are older than eight years and are still in operation are intensively monitored. "Our internal monitoring began in October 2019 when we registered 246 old cases, and at the end of 2019, in just two months, that number was reduced to 158," said Medenica

She said that this year she expects the presidents of the courts to report that all cases have been resolved.

"In this context, court presidents had and still have a decisive role in order to achieve the highest possible rate of judicial efficiency, because we know that if time is not managed, nothing else can be managed," said Medenica.

She assessed that the crisis from the previous period has been resolved, stating that the last backlogs are now being resolved.

"Therefore, I use the opportunity to praise the courts for achieving an efficiency rate of over 100 percent, but the promptness rate must also be higher." I am sending a message that solving old cases remains an extremely important issue in our integration and under constant supervision by our citizens," said Medenica.

She pointed out that an issue that is closely related to the issue of the effectiveness of court proceedings is disciplinary responsibility.

Director General of the Directorate for Justice in the Ministry of Justice, Marijana Lakovic Draskovic, pointed out that only an independent, professional and responsible judiciary can be the basis of the overall social and economic progress of Montenegro and the effective realization and protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens.

"An efficient and fair judicial system is certainly one of the priorities of the Montenegrin Government and our judiciary. We expressed our determination to continue to improve the independence, impartiality and responsibility of the judiciary, and strengthen its efficiency, by adopting the new Justice Reform Strategy 2019/2022. and the accompanying Action Plan for the two-year period adopted by the Government in September 2019," stated Laković Drašković.

She said that the implementation of the strategic and operational goals from this strategy, and related activities for its implementation, will represent the continuation of the continuous judicial reform process "which has already produced significant results, which will significantly contribute to the achievement of the most significant reform priorities determined in the negotiation process for Chapter 23".

The coordinator of legal affairs at CeMI, Ivan Vukcevic, said while presenting the recommendations from the "Report on the Monitoring of Court Proceedings in Montenegro" that normative organization, the use of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, but also its influence on the practice of domestic courts should be the basis for full exercise of the right to a fair trial, prescribed in Article 6 of the Convention.

"Basic courts should, in a greater number of cases, respect the deadline for scheduling hearings for the review of the indictment, as well as to a significantly greater extent respect the deadline for confirming the indictment." "The preliminary hearing should be used to a greater extent so that the parties in the proceedings are better informed about the planned course of the main trial," said Vukcevic.

He said that it is necessary to reduce unnecessary delays in court proceedings and consistently apply the available measures of procedural discipline, "especially in relation to defendants, witnesses and experts, given that their absence was the reason for delay in 44.03% of cases".

"The percentage of postponed hearings in custody cases should be lower considering that it is the duty of all authorities participating in criminal proceedings and authorities that provide them with legal assistance to act with special urgency if the defendant is in custody." "Courts should continue with the good practice of pronouncing and delivering verdicts within the deadline provided by law," said Vukcevic.

The President of the High Court in Podgorica, Boris Savic, believes that the efficiency and speed of the Montenegrin judiciary has shifted significantly in the last decade, a decade and a half.

"Only in the court where I come from, the length of the proceedings in the first-instance criminal proceedings is 280 days, in the first-instance special 330, in the second-instance criminal 45 days, in the civil 108 days." Seen from the outside, these are very short terms of action, they are far shorter than some European standards," said Savic.

He said that the deadlines for sentencing are generally respected.

"The legal deadline for announcing the verdict after the end of the evidentiary proceedings in some kind of case, especially before the Special Court, three days is not enough. You have to type a resolution with several tens of pages with a large number of criminal offenses in the description, without talking about deliberation and voting. So that term in the Law is very problematic," Savić pointed out.

The President of the Basic Court in Podgorica, Zeljka Jovovic, said that in terms of the data presented in the report, that court was characterized as a court with good results.

"Through the entire analysis of the respect for the right to a fair and just trial, the parties were provided with the right to a fair public hearing and the right to a public pronouncement of the verdict," stated Jovovic.

She said that in 2019, 43 requests for the acceleration of case were submitted, of which 37 were rejected as unfounded, three were adopted, and two, as she stated, were sent back for adjustment and one was rejected in another way.

Jovovic referred to the proceedings based on the indictments for 2019.

"There we came to the result that in 90 percent of the cases, the decision confirming the indictment was made on the same day. "It is the practice to make decisions on the same day the hearing was held, and in other cases, the deadline exceeds eight days, except in two cases," said Jovović.

The President of the Basic Court in Herceg Novi, Ivan Perovic, said that that court was not praised in several segments of the report, stating that in the previous period there were omissions, errors, and shortcomings in the work of that court.

"As for those omissions, they have been scanned by this report." At the moment, we are working on overcoming such omissions, so that there are no more of them, and on overcoming such types of shortcomings in the work", said Perovic.

Speaking about old cases, Perovic said that the oldest civil case in the Herceg Novi court dates back to 2016, stating that, according to the current course of events, it will be resolved very quickly.

"Regarding the publication of the decision, there was no overstepping in the Herceg Novi court. Only in four cases, the publication of the decision followed three days after the conclusion of the main trial. In all other cases, the decision was announced immediately after the conclusion of the main trial, giving the final words," said Perovic.

The deputy president of the Basic Court in Niksic, Igor Djurickovic, believes that the reform of the Black Norwegian judiciary is at an advanced stage, stating that the results of that reform are "very visible and significant".

"This is also indicated by the information from the report that the average duration of criminal proceedings in Montenegrin courts that were the subject of research from the moment of indictment to the finality of the verdict is about 150 days, that in basic courts the average duration of proceedings is 119 days, and in the courts in Podgorica and Bijelo Polje that that deadline is 184 days," said Djurickovic.

Speaking about the deadlines, Djurickovic assessed that they represent a clear indication that in the period since the beginning of the reform of the judiciary, as far as criminal procedures are concerned, a lot of progress has been achieved.

"Compared to the period before the start of the reform, I believe that in the proceedings conducted before the Montenegrin courts, standards related to professionalism in handling, standards of proof and certain facts, as well as standards of respect for human rights and freedoms, which is particularly indicative in cases that, due to their nature, require urgency in handling", said Djurickovic.

The event was organized within the project "Judicial Reform: Improving the capacity of civil society organizations in contributing to the preservation of the integrity of the judiciary", which is implemented by the Centre for Monitoring and Research (CeMI), in cooperation with the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) and the Network for the Affirmation of European integration processes (MAEIP), financed by the European Union and co-financed by the Ministry of Public Administration of Montenegro.