Tbilisi City Court responds to special statement, made by “Young Barristers”, and recommendation letter sent to Georgian high council of jurisdiction, which negativelty estimated the order from the law of first instance, July 1st, 2014, according to whcich, in stated court, judges were appointed to criminal, public and administrative case categories.
The organization thought, that court chariman’s decision, rises problem on effective execution of justice, for the majority of cases in the court, starting from 1st of July, 2014, will be examined by different judges according to the case categories, and demanded, to the extent possible, to halt removal of judges from cases and to start categoric examination of the cases only registered after July 1st, 2014.
Tbilisi City Court responded to “Young Barristers” position with next:
„We notify you, that Tbilisi city court chariman’s decision, on July 1st, 2014, concerning “appointment of judges according to case categories” is derived from decision made by Gerogian Jurisdictional Commission on June 11, 2014, according to which, because of overabundance of cases at Tbilisi city court and precisely for legal effectiveness, 10 judges were called for. In various branches of Tbilisi city court, the judges were overloaded (every judge had to examine 100-250 active cases), which, you would agree, is abnormal. Thus, for unloading of judges, above orders were accepted with their agreement, according to which, cases at the Tbilisi city court will also distributed to 10 new judges, which eventually positively affects the fast and effective legal actions. In addition, shortening the number of cases for judges will cause not only defense of competition and equality, but also will raise the quality of verdict, which is the main goal for Tbilisi city court.
It is also to be noted, that specific judges and employees of Tbilisi city court, on the basis of accepted orders, physically could not have communicated with each side of the case, meaning that the sides could not have be informed about the changes, although employees did everything to notify the sides about such orders to exterminate further complications with the case. The order was also published on the website of Tbilisi city court. “- Stated in the response, which is signed by Tbilisi city court chairman, Mamuka Akhvlediani.
For the information: on July 18th, 2014, “Young Barristers”, on special briefing, negatively evaluated orders from chairman of Tbilisi city court and called them partially debatable. The organization stated, that there will be high risk that the examined cases will not be substantiated by the belief, and that judge needs during competition between two sides and the principles of equality. The decision of chairman of the court is halting the effective realization of justice, because majority of the cases at Tbilisi Public Court, from July 1st, 2014, will be addressed to different judges according to the categories.
On the basis of “Young Barristers” evaluation, during the decision making, interests of the sides, lawful trust towards the case examinator and judge’s inner belief were to be taken into consideration. Most of the cases are on the last phase of examination or/and the important actions are still going on for both sides, and by the given decision, both sides have to invest more power to present and substantiate the highlights of the case to the new judge.
It is to be noted, that the court could not communicate with the sides in time about the upcoming changes. In addition, the publishing of changes on the website of Tbilisi Public Court took place on July 17, 2014, 16 days after the order was given out and the organization learned about the changes of the judges after first instance of the court, became interested in the subject and tried to communicate about ensuring this information to reach the public.
