The Supreme Judiciary Council is currently studying the implementation of a plan to speed up the resolution of cases in courts.
The delay in resolving cases is generally attributed to the growth in the number of cases and a shortage of judges, according to a council source.
However, the source said delays also affected courts where there were a sufficient number of judges, Al-Watan daily reported yesterday.
The reasons for delays includes litigants not supplying certain information and documents or slow response times from a government department which may be involved in the case.
The source said other reasons include judges lacking specialist knowledge in certain cases, delays in forwarding a case to the Court of Appeals for further examination and shortage of judges in some courts.
Solutions to these problems will be introduced in a phased manner.
They include setting up special benches in courts and appointing judges to deal with cases they have knowledge of.
Another step is to make administrative supervisors and assistants to judges take up more responsibilities.
The Ministry of Justice has appointed administrative supervisors in all court offices. Their responsibilities could be divided in such a way that they ease the burden of judges who can then devote more time to studying cases and issue verdicts quicker.
Another step is to spread the workload among other courts in a particular region. That will help courts that have a lot of work pass it on to those that are not so busy.
The source said: “The judiciary council should take steps to learn the actual needs of each court in the Kingdom and appoint judges according the needs of each court.”
Another solution is not to allow a judge to transfer until a replacement is found. If a judge is transferred, there should be a system in place to ensure the work in the affected court does not suffer until another judge takes up the position.
The source said: “A transfer order should be accompanied by another order to hand over the judge’s work in his court to another judge until a replacement is found.”
According to earlier reports, the Ministry of Justice started implementing an independent judicial inspection system to monitor delayed paperwork and other developments in a court.
The program reduced the workload for employees by 20 percent, said head of the ministry’s judicial inspection department Naser Al-Muhaimeed. Each judge can now be notified about delayed paperwork, canceled appointments and other developments, he said.
Quicker disposal of court cases planned
