“The time to improve the status of misdemeanour court judges has finally arrived. There are no justifications for their status and earnings to be different to those of basic court judges”, Justice Minister Nela Kuburović stated at today’s closing ceremony of the Annual Conference of Judges of Misdemeanour Courts and the Misdemeanour Court of Appeal of the Republic of Serbia. “As Minister, I will certainly advocate for your status to be improved. The Ministry will work on improving the status and increasing the earnings of not only misdemeanour court judges, but also judges of the Misdemeanour Court of Appeal”, the Minister said.

She emphasised that misdemeanour courts were indispensable in the judicial chain and to the protection of citizens’ rights, as well as that they were in fact one of the largest collectors of revenues going into the Budget of the Republic of Serbia. The Minister noted that in the nine months of this year, the misdemeanour courts brought in around 3.5 billion dinars.

Kuburović announced that misdemeanour and commercial courts would be included in the following competitive recruitment of trainees, as they were not included in the earlier one, meaning that soon, those courts would be able to choose from the finest Law Faculty graduates. “I would like to stress that the Ministry of Justice has recognised the importance of misdemeanour courts, as you will have seen over the past several years through, not only the changes to the Misdemeanour Act, but also the large investments the Serbian Government and the Ministry of Justice had made in the judicial infrastructure”, the Justice Minister said. She added that she was proud of the fact that, as Justice Minister, she had the opportunity to open several new misdemeanour court buildings, the last one of which had been that in Pančevo.

The Minister also noted that the construction of the Palace of Justice in Kragujevac had commenced the month before, which would result in the Misdemeanour Court in Kragujevac and the local branch of the Misdemeanour Court of Appeal having brand new offices. “We will continue working on this matter. We are aware that many of you still work in poor conditions and that you are adjoined to municipal authorities. Rest assured that we are also working on improving your conditions“, Kuburović stressed.

The Minister concluded by saying that the Association of Misdemeanour Court Judges certainly had plenty to show the younger associations and lead by example.