Gov't Approves Court Map Reform, Envisages Scrapping of Four District Courts

Bratislava, January 12 (TASR) – A new court map that was approved by the Government at its session on Wednesday envisages the scrapping of four district courts, TASR learnt on the same day.

Municipal courts are to be set up in Kosice and Bratislava. In addition, there will be three areas covered by regional courts based in Trnava, Zilina and Presov. The remaining courts will function as workplaces and headquarters. The reform proposal will now be passed to Parliament for debate.

Courts to be scrapped are district courts in Partizanske, Banovce nad Bebravou (both Trencin region), Skalica (Trnava region) and Kezmarok (Presov region). The agenda of the business register should be concentrated at the Zilina District Court.

“The merged areas of district courts will be large enough to meet the criteria of the minimum size of a judicial area, with an optimal minimum number of three specialised judges in all the main agendas,” the Justice Ministry said in the submission report. The enlargement of these areas is intended to provide more scope for the implementation of the criterion of random selection of judges. Commercial disputes are to be concentrated in eight district courts.

The changes also affect regional courts. Their headquarters are to be Trnava for the West Slovak regions, Zilina for the Central Slovak regions and Presov for the East Slovak regions. The remaining five regional courts will become workplaces.