Armenian court judges workload to be reduced, judges' salaries to be raised

YEREVAN, June 16. /ARKA/. A package of major legislative changes designed by Armenian Justice Ministry to reduce the workload of court judges was unveiled today by Minister Grigor Minasyan at a regular government session.

He said studies conducted from 2020 to 2022 showed that some 441,000 applications had been filed with courts of general jurisdiction, of which 395,000 were small confiscation cases.

‘Some 90% of our courts are loaded with cases that do not represent a justice process," he said, noting that 90% of these cases are not appealed. 

The proposed changes are supposed to reduce the workload of the courts by 80%, because banks, credit institutions and utility companies will not be allowed to take confiscation cases to courts. Instead, they will have to settle them with notaries, who, in turn, will further transfer cases to the Enforcement Service. The changes will apply to cases of confiscation of up to 2 million drams. At the same time citizens will retain the opportunity to appeal cases if they believe that the notary has made a mistake.

Adoption of the draft, according to Minasyan, will solve the dilemma faced by the government: to increase the number of judges or raise their salaries in favor of the latter. ($1 - 386.54 dram) -0-