OREANDA-NEWS  The shortage of judges in Russia is almost 20%, said Vladislav Ivanov, Director General of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

"There are 6,491 vacancies in all courts today. This is 19.8% of the total number of judges," Ivanov said at a meeting of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation on Tuesday.

He specified that this year the shortage of judges has increased in arbitration courts by 29%, in courts of general jurisdiction - by 18%, among magistrates - by 13%.

"These are very alarming indicators. The main reasons are low wages combined with high qualification requirements and high responsibility of judges and court staff," Ivanov said.

At the same time, he noted the annual increase in the number of retired judges. The main reasons for the retirement of judges, according to him, are low wages, high workload, lack of opportunity to maintain a balance between work and personal life, as well as professional burnout.

"It can be summarized that early retirement of judges is currently taking place most often after reaching 20 years of service. As a rule, these are also judges who have sufficient professional experience, who are able to continue working in the judicial system for health reasons and bear the burden," Ivanov said.

He noted that as one of the ways to solve this problem, the judicial department plans in 2025 to prepare a justification "for the allocation by the Ministry of Finance of funds to increase salaries for judges and court staff, to create a modern information system for court records management and electronic document management, excluding routine operations, which will help reduce working hours and enable judges to deal with family and myself." The Judicial Department also plans to equalize the workload by redistributing the staff of judges and staff, as well as provide judges with decent working conditions.

"The time has come to develop a comprehensive program for the professional longevity of judges and staff. It is necessary to ensure that judges and government civil servants, even if they can retire, continue to work in the judicial system," Ivanov concluded.