
The new judicial map comes into force today. The HCJ has sent a final decision to the Courts of Appeal in the districts and starting today they will be closed and only one Appeal in Tirana will function. Meanwhile, the 13 First Instance courts will be closed on May 1.
The Courts of Appeal in Shkodër, Vlorë, Durrës, Korçë and Gjirokastër will be merged, while only one information office for citizens will remain open.
3 civil judicial officers will work in these offices and citizens will only be able to file requests.
With the new judicial map, all the cases which have no date for trial in the Appeal, will once again be drawn by lot, to determine the judges who will examine them. There are 32,000 files for which the trial has not yet started, among which is the appeal that the Democratic Party of Alibeaj has made against the decision of judge Agron Zhukri, who gave the seal of the party to Sali Berisha. These files without dates for the first session will be drawn again on February 1 and 2.
For these 32,000 files, there will be 25 judges who are expected to examine them, out of the 78 that are organic, but there will also be legal assistants by their side. These vacancies are created by the vetting process, while the volume of files is relatively large compared to the number of judges.
The new judicial map, which was drawn up by the Supreme Judicial Council, met the objections of the lawyers, who boycotted the sessions for several weeks. The new map will operate with 16 courts in total, 12 of the First Instance, 1 Court of Appeal and 2 Administrative courts. The Supreme Court merged 18 courts, reducing the Courts of Appeal to a single one in Tirana, from 5 Administrative courts there will be only two, in the capital and in Lushnje, while from the 22 that were, with the new map, from February 1st they will be only 13 courts of First Instance.