Two Months from Filing for Divorce till First Hearing: Opendatabot Has Calculated the Speed at Which Ukrainian Courts Work
The reason for slow proceedings is the catastrophic lack of judges.
27 September 2021
Opendatabot has analyzed the most widespread types of disputes in Ukraine and has found that Ukrainians wait for some two months after they file for divorce till the first court hearing.
People who want to divorce have to wait 55 days on average for the first hearing in a regular court. The waiting time to litigate with the tax service in an administrative court is 49 days. That for the action of debt in a commercial court is 62 days. The reason for such waiting time is that all regions are lacking judges. Moreover, half of the judges currently employed are not authorized to perform judicial functions.
For example, out of 35 judges in the Shevchenkivskyi District Court, only 26 have such authorization. The inhabitants of this district who want to divorce have to wait 103 days on average for a divorce action to start. The average figure is 72 days for Kyiv and 73 days for the Kyiv region.
The Ivano-Frankivsk region is the fastest one to start a divorce action—‘only’ 40 days to wait. The average waiting time in Ukraine is 55 days.
The situation is similar in administrative and commercial courts.
One of the most common types of litigation in administrative courts is litigation with the tax service. The first hearing in such cases is held about 49 days after the lawsuit is filed. The Luhansk region is the fastest with some 31 days, while the Volyn region is the slowest with 67 days.
The action of debt between companies is the most typical for commercial courts and requires 62 days of waiting. The fastest courts hold hearings in 42 days in the Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. The slowest ones are in the Kyiv region with 80 days.
Notably, the above figures represent the time before a first hearing, which is most often not the last one. People have to wait for months between follow-up hearings, while the whole case can take years to complete.
| Judges currently employed | 2,677 | 38.0% |
|---|---|---|
| Unqualified judges | 2,400 | 34.1% |
| Vacancies | 1,962 | 27.9% |
Out of 7,000 judge positions in Ukraine, only 5,100 are taken, and only 2,700 judges have necessary authorizations.
Source: Opendatabot
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