We continue to work together to increase the efficiency of the justice system! - wrote Minister of Justice Judit Varga on her social media page.
The duration of court proceedings has been significantly shortened since the introduction of the new Criminal Procedure Act in 2018. In 2020, two-thirds of the cases that became final in the first instance were closed within 3 months, and the average duration of criminal trials decreased to almost two-thirds of the duration in 2016, from 362 days to 262 days.
Thanks to the speeding up of the procedures, in addition to the duration of ongoing cases, their number also decreased, from 29,967 to 15,043 in 4 years, the number of ongoing criminal trials in the district courts decreased by almost half.
However, despite the continuous and substantial improvement of statistics, criminal proceedings may still be delayed in exceptional, unique cases. The newer legal institutions are not applicable in all cases, for example, if the process of proof is too complicated.
In order to eliminate such exceptional cases, a new working group was established on Tuesday with the coordination of the Ministry of Justice, the aim of which is to further improve the efficiency of the justice system. The working group examines all criminal proceedings, from the investigation through the indictment to the end of the court proceedings.
The working group is made up of various bodies of the central public administration and the judiciary, so in addition to the Ministry of Justice, representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, the Kúria, the National Court Office, the General Prosecutor's Office, the National Police Headquarters and the National Tax and Customs Office also participate in the in joint work.
