FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The Albanian judicial system is facing a deep crisis of functioning, where the lack of judges and the extraordinary workload of files has led to unacceptable delays in the adjudication of civil and criminal cases.
The situation is particularly serious in the Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction, where cases from 2017 and 2018 have not yet been tried, and the 2-year legal deadline for completing the processes is not being respected.
A typical case of this collapse is that of a woman from Fier, who has been unable to finalize her divorce for more than 4 years, despite living with a new partner and being 6 months pregnant. Due to delays in the trial, the child she is expecting risks automatically taking the surname of her first husband, a situation that will create serious administrative and legal problems for her.
The woman, who agreed to speak only behind closed doors to Fiks Fare, says that after many difficulties, she won the divorce at the Court of First Instance in Fier. But the first husband appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal in Tirana, only on the issue of child custody. Since then, more than two years have passed, without a single court session being held and without ever being summoned by the court.
Meanwhile, the situation has also changed for the children: one of them is now 18 years old and is no longer the subject of guardianship, but the process has remained blocked.
Fiks Fare requested official information from the Court of Appeal. In its response, the court confirmed that “The lady’s file was registered on March 24, 2023. Judge Elona Mihali was appointed rapporteur. The failure to review the case for 2 consecutive years comes from the fact that the court respects the order of registration of files. Currently, cases registered since 2017-2018 are pending, which makes it impossible to respect the 2-year legal deadline. Only in cases with a request for acceleration, is it judged out of order”
The court acknowledged that the impasse stems from the low number of judges, where out of the 78 judges provided for in the organizational structure, only 32 are active.
The situation is even more dramatic due to the volume of files. There are a total of 45,375 registered cases, of which 29,000 are civil and 15,900 are criminal.
Although the woman has filed several requests for the acceleration of the procedure, the court's reaction came only after Fiks Fare officially became interested. After communicating with the editorial team, on November 3, 2025, the panel decided that her case will be considered at the session on December 3, 2025.
The woman says she is desperate and afraid of the consequences that the birth of a child without resolving the divorce could bring, as the legal procedures related to the child's surname and recognition of paternity could be severely complicated./ Top Channel
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