Greek judges defy government order to work faster

Feb 23, 2007, 11:19 GMT

Athens - Greek judges have defied a government order to work faster in an effort to clear the backlog of some 40,000 cases that are apparently clogging up the judicial system, the Greek Kathimerini newspaper reported Friday.

The plenary session of first-instance court judges had decided to reject an appeal by Justice Minister Anastassis Papaligouras to wrap up more trials each day.

Papaligouras had demanded that judges speed up the rate at which they issue rulings so that the backlog could at least be reduced.

The judges said they were already swamped with work and demanded that more justices be appointed. They insisted that single-member first-instance courts should hear a maximum of 40 cases a day, while those with more than one judge should hear no more than 25.

The report said that as of the beginning of February, there were almost 40,000 civil court cases outstanding.

The minister's intervention was reportedly not well received by justices, who felt that the minister was meddling in their affairs.