Four…”slow” judges have been dismissed by the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, due to excessive delays in issuing judgments, in some cases the delays in 241 cases even reaching 4 years and 5 months.

Since September 2021, when the former President of the Supreme Court Maria Georgiou, in the context of combating the phenomenon of long delays, intensified the referrals of her colleagues, due to the long delays in the Plenary of the Supreme Court with the question of final dismissal to date that continued the same tactics Joanna Klapa-Christodoullea, a total of 32 judges and prosecutors have been dismissed within three years.

Now, the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, under its president Ioanna Klapa and with the participation of the Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adilini, the question of the permanent suspension of judges was addressed, for incompetence in the exercise of judicial function, due to the many and long delays in issuing decisions for a long period of time.

Who are the four judges who were sacked

Thus, during the last Disciplinary Plenary Session, one Appeals Judge of Thessaloniki, two presidents of the Athens Court of First Instance, one Prosecutor of Athens were dismissed, while the case of a prosecutor of the Thessaloniki Court of First Instance was postponed.

Specifically, one president of the First Instance Court was unanimously removed, despite the fact that “he was formally qualified for a good career in the judiciary, as he holds a Master’s degree in Civil Law and is well versed in English, from the early years of his career he was experiencing significant and unjustified delays in issuing decisions, which over time deteriorated”.

The number of delays initially ranged from 114 to 241 cases, but the delays peaked over time to the point that 241 cases from the Athens Trial Court have been pending in his hands today for 4 years and 5 months.

Furthermore, there were 10 cases pending for which Mrs. Klapa sent him documents with which she ordered him deadlines for the completion of these cases. However, he complied with these deadlines only in respect of 4 cases and the remaining 6 cases still remain pending.

As Ms. Yakoumatou pointed out, the excessive continuing delays have occurred since the beginning of his career and for this reason there have been repeated written reports, as well as verbal complaints from both lawyers and citizens. However, he nevertheless showed indifference in the performance of his duties.

In fact, the rapporteur pointed out, he is not aware of his basic obligations as a judicial officer and has been in a permanent administrative deadlock for a long time, producing little or no judicial work and repeatedly burdening his colleagues. All this despite the fact that at one point he was not charging cases to cover his backlog.

He argued that his behaviour was not due to indifference but to family health problems he had experienced, personal health problems such as cataracts in both eyes and the large volume of cases he was billed for.

Finally, by a unanimous decision of the full court, he was permanently removed from the judiciary.

Second dismissal of chief justice

The second president of the Athens Primary Courts was permanently dismissed by a majority vote due to the long unjustified delays over a number of years which she had displayed since her entry into the judiciary.

The delays it experienced were fluctuating per judicial year and ranged from 100 cases to 143.

At the same time, there were written reports from citizens, as well as verbal complaints about delays in issuing decisions. In fact, in one report, citizens noted that he repeatedly committed to issuing their decision, but when the promised time arrived, he did not issue the decision and moved the time of issuance to a later time, which he again failed to meet.

She cited serious health problems of her close relatives (husband, father, mother and sister) which contributed to the delays.

The rapporteur of the case, the adjudicator Georgia Katsimagli proposed her permanent suspension, a proposal that was accepted by a majority of the Disciplinary Chamber.

Final Suspension of a First Judge

She currently has 224 cases pending in her hands, while 111 cases were removed from her hands due to unjustified delays in issuing decisions, resulting in her burdening colleagues with the cases that were removed.

Due to the long delays, petitions had been repeatedly filed against her by both lawyers and citizens requesting that her decisions be expedited.

Indicatively, it was reported during the hearing that she was adjudicating a small number of cases under the jurisdiction of the Single Judge Court of First Instance. Specifically, it was reported that out of 570 cases submitted for adjudication, she only heard 320 and postponed 250. Furthermore, she had been imposed a disciplinary sanction of 25 days’ deprivation of salary and a reprimand.

She, among others, pleaded that when she was in the Labour Department in 2019-2020 she had already created a rolling backlog, which she tried to reduce by making great efforts, but during that period of time and in 2021 her family obligations were burdened, due to the closure of schools because of the pandemic, with the result that she had to bear the entire burden of caring for her two minor children, without any help from her husband, who worked every day morning and afternoon, or from her relatives.

The rapporteur pointed out, among other things, that the First Judge in question is not aware of her basic obligations and has been in a permanent service deadlock for a long time, provides almost no or minimal judicial work, repeatedly burdens her colleagues, who are punctual in their obligations and shakes the confidence of citizens in Greek Justice.

The Plenary accepted the recommendation of rapporteur Ms. Daviou and permanently dismissed the First Judge.

Finally, by summary proceedings, the Plenary finalized the dismissal of a female appellant for official incompetence.