The Superior Council of the Magistracy warns that the lack of judges and clerks is blocking the activity of the courts, and citizens feel the consequences directly, as Romania has the largest number of cases per population in Europe.
The Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM) once again draws attention to the acute personnel crisis in the judicial system and warns that the lack of judges and clerks can block the activity of the courts, with direct effects on citizens. According to the institution, approximately 15% of the judge positions are vacant, and the number of clerks is insufficient to cope with the high volume of work, given that Romania remains the European state with the highest number of newly entered cases in the first instance compared to the population: 8.42 cases per 100 inhabitants, compared to the European average of 2.20.
“Not pensions
block justice.
Lack of staff blocks justice!
The citizen bears the consequences!
• 849 judges are missing!
• 712 judge assistants are needed! The law gives us the right for the benefit of the litigants!
• 200 clerks/year promised – ZERO employees! In 6 years, 600 clerks were promised and not even one clerk was given!
• Provide suitable premises for PEOPLE! And for JUSTICE!”, sent the CSM on Tuesday, March 10, on Facebook.
This signal comes after, for the third time this year, the CSM requested the Government and the Ministry of Justice to adopt concrete measures to unlock human resources in the courts. Specifically, the requests are:
* the unblocking of competitions for direct admission to the judiciary, suspended by normative acts, in the conditions where there are 849 vacant judge positions;
* the allocation of clerk positions, the need being 4,874, of which none of the promised 600 have been filled in the last six years;
* the establishment of 712 positions of judge’s assistants, in order to comply with the minimum ratio of one assistant to three judges.
Currently, some courts operate in extremely difficult conditions, says the CSM, there are situations where the activity is ensured by a single judge or where more than half of the positions are vacant.
The situation is aggravated by the very high volume of files: in 2024, 1.6 million new cases were registered in civil and commercial matters, compared to the European average of 418,544, and 769,823 files were still pending, compared to the European average of 358,277.
In 2025, the courts in Romania managed 3,578,860 cases, in the conditions of a shortage of judges between 15% and 20%, which keeps Romania at the top of the European ranking of the volume of cases related to the population. Under these conditions, the CSM warns that without urgent measures, the consequences will be borne by the Romanians.
