Evaluation of Panama justice system begins July 1

The Administrative Council of the Judicial Career, chaired by Judge Abel Augusto Zamorano, announced on March 22 the start of the process that seeks to guarantee “equal opportunities for all evaluated and due publicity and transparency”.

The process, which will take a year, is divided into 12 stages that start on July 1 and conclude with the final evaluation, consolidation, and communication of the results, between the months of July and August 2023.

The regulation establishes an assessment or score for each of these areas and provides that when these personnel are evaluated and do not achieve a score equal to or greater than 70%, this will constitute a temporary impediment to their transfer and promotion. If the person fails to pass the evaluation in the following consecutive period, he will lose status as a servant of the judicial career.

Points system
To evaluate the performance of judicial servants, aspects such as productivity (45%), competencies (25%), good judicial or administrative practices (10%), compliance with ethical standards and discipline (10%) the work environment (5%) and the quality of user service (5%)will be valued.

On March 4, the president  of the Supreme Court, María Eugenia López, presided over the swearing-in ceremony for the officials who will be in charge of assessing the competencies of judicial servants for performance evaluation

The team will be in charge of the permanent certification of the competencies required for the performance of the different jobs of the institution and, they will guide the processes of selection, training, and substantiation of the certification and recertification procedure of the applicants and members of the Judicial Branch.

The law that creates the judicial career was approved in 2005, but to date, the Judicial Branch has not achieved its implementation and most of the judges and magistrates are appointed on an interim basis.

Judicial delay continues to be a challenge for the administration of justice. At the end of 2019, there were 93,592 files in process. In 2020, the figure was 73,000 and in 2021 it reached more than 66,000.