President asked the new Chief Justice about his priorities as the head of the Supreme Court and Judicial Council. President and chief justices also spent a great deal of time discussing the upskilling and apprenticeship programmes for judges. ‘Latvia needs Academy for Judges and Prosecutors. Its task would be to offer training and upskilling to judges. Many European countries have such academies,’ said Egils Levits. Chief Justice Strupišs mentioned that Judicial Council has recently adopted new appointment procedures for judges and now there is greater focus on education of young judges. Meeting also focused on specialisation of judges and courts. It was underlined that a good balance between general professional knowledge of judges and in-depth knowledge about a specific area of law is very important.
While discussing the results of Judicial Council’s work, Ivars Bičkovičs told the President and the new Chief Justice about the working group established to analyse the problem with delayed trials on the national level. Judicial Council urged Supreme Court to create such working group following President’s address at the annual meeting of judges in which he called for such step. Working group is expected to present its findings on factors influencing the length of civil criminal and administrative proceedings this autumn when the study about Latvian courts will be ready.
