By Panagiotis Stathis
From today (with the DSA abstaining from political trials) until practically Monday of Thomas, the lawyers are closing the courts of the country, in view of the introduction of the new judicial charter as a bill to the competent committee of the Parliament. At the same time, two referendums will be held in Athens and Piraeus, while next Wednesday, April 24, the court employees are escalating their reactions with a 24-hour strike.
Civil trials
The “lawyer battle” begins on Monday, April 22, with the lawyers of Athens refraining from all political cases of any kind, which also includes consensual divorces. As the DSA reports, licenses will be granted exclusively:
– In cases of statutes of limitations and amortization periods, including procedural ones, in civil cases.
– In Suspensions and Suspensions during auctions.
– In adjudication of temporary orders of manifestly urgent cases.
– In affidavits, only if there is a risk of a deadline.
– In a mandatory initial mediation session (YAS):
i) for the cases in which a request has already been submitted to the Ombudsman,
ii) for the cases of the new procedure where there is a question of a deadline for submitting proposals and
iii) for family disputes, where their discussion is imminent.
It is expressly clarified that during the abstinence no filings of pleadings and remedies will be made.
Referendums
On the same day, referendums begin in the Bar Associations of Athens and Piraeus on whether their member lawyers accept the creation of regional courts of first instance in the prefecture of Attica according to the new Judicial Charter.
-In Athens, the referendum will be held from April 22 to 29, 2024 and will be held at the offices of the DSA (60 Akadimias), the Court of First Instance of Athens, the Magistrates’ Court of Athens, the Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens and the Court of Appeal of Athens and electronically through the Portal Olomeleia of the DSA .
-In Piraeus, the referendum will take place by secret ballot and either in person, as there will be a ballot box at the Piraeus Bar Association and the Piraeus Court of First Instance, or electronically through the Olomeleia Portal, from Monday, April 22, 2024 until M. Monday, April 29, 2024.
Catholic
From Tuesday, April 22, formally until Holy Tuesday, but practically due to the Easter holidays until St. Thomas’ Monday, the country’s lawyers, by decision of their Plenary Session, descend into universal abstinence with permits essentially only given if there is a risk of statute of limitations .
Disagreement
The lawyers agree “that the unification of the first degree of jurisdiction can contribute to the direction of speeding up the administration of Justice, under the necessary condition of the expansion of electronic justice, the appropriate training of peacekeepers and the existence of the necessary logistical infrastructure”.
From there, the intense disagreements based “on the promoted arrangements for the operation of the “Parallel Courts of First Instance” begin, pointing out that, in addition to the degradation of the specific judicial formations, in combination with the operation of the Regional Courts of First Instance, major problems are created in the process of awarding the Justice, especially in terms of the operation of the prosecutor’s office (provision of organic positions of prosecutors) and the exercise of remedies”.
A special mention is made of the “Courts of First Instance of Messolonghi, Aigio, Amaliada, Gytheio, Thebes, Kalavryta and Kyparissia” which, as they say, should remain as they are, since they will no longer be the main courts of first instance in their region since other formations were chosen.
Athens – Piraeus
But the big battle is fought with the creation of parallel courts of first instance (3 in Athens and 2 in Piraeus with the abolition of the magistrates’ courts) in Athens and Piraeus, as there is obviously the basic reaction. Thus, the Plenary “also expresses its strong opposition to the attempted division of the Courts of First Instance of Athens and Piraeus with the creation of six (6) Regional Courts of First Instance in Attica (in addition to the existing Courts of First Instance of Athens and Piraeus), with the competence of a Single-Member Court of First Instance, in place of the abolished Magistrates’ Courts , which creates special difficulties and even an objective impossibility to exercise the legal profession, especially for young lawyers and lawyers who do not have the possibility of employing partners”.
In fact, they call the effort worse than that of the former minister St. Nearby:
“The attempted “reform” is carried out under even worse conditions than the attempt to divide the Court of First Instance of Athens under the Ministry of Kontoni, on the one hand due to the further fragmentation of the Courts of First Instance of Athens and Piraeus (8 judicial formations in total) and on the other hand as the Regional Courts of First Instance that are being created lack the basic infrastructure and personnel, but above all digital justice has not been promoted in them”.
Judicial Officers
Court officials are also reacting strongly and on Wednesday April 24 they went on a 24-hour walkout: “The bill does not address any of the perennial problems of the judicial services; the tragic understaffing, the significant lack of infrastructure, the low salaries of the judges officials, all kinds of obstacles to citizens’ access to justice. On the contrary, the bill is a reactionary piece – part of a wider puzzle (which is being completed piece by piece), it is against the needs of the social majority and will further harm the rights of judicial officers as well of those “dealing” with the Judiciary”, they state and add: “The organic positions of judicial officers of the abolished – merged services will be transferred to the local central Courts of First Instance. This means that all judicial officers will be potentially mobile – nomads wherever and whenever For example, the court official currently serving in Agrinio can – with a simple “order” – move to Messolonghi or Nafpaktos. The provision to cover the relevant travel expenses proves the truth of the matter”.
