Cases in Cyprus take an average of 5 years to be resolved according to European statistical data.
A report by the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPJ) released on 16 October 2024 criticises a number of countries for the delay in resolving court cases , including Cyprus on the median aspect.
In terms of efficiency, the report stated that there were long delays in Cyprus in resolving cases is well in excess of all medians across all types of cases for other European countries for which data is available.
Whilst there were some improvements – notably in criminal justice, but also in civil rights type cases- civil cases in Cyprus still have lengthy time frames when it comes to resolution. It should be borne in mind that the CRPJ report refers to “medians” and “resolution” – in other words, there will be many cases which exceed the median by many years, and the median includes cases settled by parties, by agreement, and not necessarily through trial.
The CEPJ report puts the issues down to underfunding by the central administration.
The major improvements were noted after the introduction of new court rules in Cyprus after 2020, but they have yet to bed in fully and many of those apply to cases issued after 2020,not before. Christofi Law have cases which have been 10 years in the resolution – difficult to explain to a culture in the UK where the court system tries to hurry along parties .
Hopefully Cyprus will avoid going down the path of “nanny state strike out” which some jurisdictions have gone through, using strike out – usually through some meaningless default by a party – as a means of getting cases off of the court system.
