Strengthening infrastructure is part of the judicial reform. Speaking about what are the benefits for the citizens from having a new building of the Magistrates Court, Minister Nikola Selaković said the building is of great importance considering that magistrates courts in Serbia, being primarily administrative authorities, and more recently part of the judicial authority, were established in 1951.

“The Magistrates Court in Belgrade, which is not only the largest magistrates court in Serbia and on the Balkans, but by far the largest court in Eastern Europe, counting 106 judges, obtained its working space for the first time” said the Minister of Justice in the RTS main evening news programme “Dnevnik”. Selaković said that this is a true example of rationalisation because 14 different places in the capital concentrate into one place, the magistrates court, which results in large savings, he said.

Before, any judicial document or any complaint that is submitted to the court was first sent to the seat of the court and then to the extended court premises located in Surčin, Novi Beograd, Rakovica, Zemun, Zvezdara and Vračar, Selaković said.

He pointed out that savings will be made in the way that reduction in the use of cars and couriers will result in fuel consumption reduction and time saving.

“Usually it took seven to ten days for a document to travel from the seat of the court to the extended court premises and back and if we take into consideration the fact that in 2014, the court received 140,000 new cases, we saved approximately 980,000 days, which is more than 2,500 years” Selaković said.

According to his words, the symbolic meaning here is much more important. “Until now, we have had a situation where not every judge had their court.

Since yesterday, every judge of the Magistrates Court in Belgrade has their own court, which means that they can schedule a trial more regularly and promptly, which saves time in terms of making court decisions, and proceedings will be shorter, which is of great importance for the functioning of justice, judiciary and also citizens’ needs for justice” Selaković said.