The lawyers appointed by the court in Bosnia and Herzegovina plan to stop their work

Lawyers who work ex officio in courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina will stop working if the debts from their representation in criminal cases are not paid. This was told by the President of the Bar Association of Republika Srpska, Dalibor Mrša, to BHT1, pointing out that this measure was forced by the ignorant attitude of the relevant institutions. The bar associations announced more radical measures in a joint statement, stating that through their actions the authorities are increasing citizens’ distrust of the judicial system.

We have reached the end. We can no longer tolerate the ignoring of debts owed to lawyers, says the President of the Bar Association of Republika Srpska. Financing representation with one’s own resources is no longer an option, he adds.

“I think that within a month we will have very clear positions, and these will certainly be very radical steps, radical decisions in the sense of suspending work on cases, criminal cases in which the defense attorneys are acting on duty,” says the President of the Bar Association of the Republic of Serbia, Dalibor Mrđa.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina explains that due to the increased number of cases before the War Crimes and Organized Crime Divisions, there has been an increase in the costs of ex officio defense lawyers. Two budget restructurings from last year were not enough to pay in full, so the debt was carried over to this year, for which there is no budget.

“Given that the temporary financing of the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina is in force, the funds provided for in the Court’s Operational Plan for the period January-June 2024 were insufficient to meet all obligations, and the Court turned several times to the Ministry of Finance and Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina with a proposal for the decision on the approval of the current reserves of funds for the first and second quarters of 2024, and all competent and relevant institutions were informed to participate in resolving the said problem,” said the Public Relations Department of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A suspension of legal practice could have serious consequences, ranging from a slowdown to a complete suspension of litigation in state courts.

“Some of the proceedings before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in war crimes cases last up to ten years, and recently, at one of the hearings in these cases, we received information that the lawyers requested that the hearings be held only once a month precisely because of the problem of non-payment of compensation,” explains Džana Brkanić of BIRN BiH.

The Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Davor Bunoza, had previously told BIRN’s Detektor that there was no will in the Council of Ministers to pay off debts from reserve funds. Politicians had also blocked the adoption of the state budget and could thus block the work of the justice system.