Justice 2022: Proposal for a voluntary exit program for judges and prosecutors

By Panagiotis Stathis

A program of voluntary departure of judges and prosecutors from the Judiciary has fallen on the table of the officials of the Ministry of Justice for 2022, a year in which many reforms in the Judiciary are expected to take place anyway. This process is not unprecedented for Justice since on the one hand it has re-evolved in the past (twice) and on the other hand it can solve an internal problem in its operation in a more “velvet” way.

The proposal was made public recently, during the general assembly of the Union of Greek Prosecutors, by the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Vassilis Pliotas:

“…. In relation to the analyzes for the whole judicial work, the delays in the processing of cases, etc., I consider that it is mature and appropriate to have, according to previous legal standards, a voluntary exit regulation, so that a small number of judicial officers who are unable to meet the requirements of their function, primarily for health reasons, to be able, as in the past, to leave the judiciary in terms of dignity, not exhaustion ”.

Normal volunteer

In previous years he had volunteered again in Justice and had led to the resignation of about 20 judges at a time. The reasoning of the experienced, senior prosecutor of the country has a dual purpose: On the one hand the removal from Justice of judicial officials who obviously can not fulfill their role and duty causing serious damage to its operation, and on the other to the most “velvet” “Process of exclusion from the judiciary, without taking the” stigma “of those unable to fulfill their role. This has to do with the fact that many of the judges or prosecutors have serious health problems and these are not cases of indifferent court officials.

The criteria

The model that had been followed in the past was the recognition of fictitious years (5-6) and the promotion to the next grade of the yearbook so that they could retire with dignity and meet their living needs. That is, a model similar to those that sometimes operate in the labor market, but adapted to the judicial data. This model should work – according to legal sources – in parallel with the intensification of the disciplinary process that is already evolving and with the will of the leadership to cut off from the judiciary all the sources of delay in the issuance of decisions (of course regarding the responsibilities of the judiciary as the problem is also political).