Judicial Council says court budget falls short of pay needs

The proposed 2027 budget for Lithuania’s courts does not provide enough for the pay rises needed by court staff, Judicial Council Chair Danguolė Bublienė said, according to LRT. She said salaries would rise by about 4.6%, rather than the 6% increase cited by the Finance Ministry.

The Judicial Council has repeatedly proposed linking the salaries of judges’ assistants, court hearing secretaries and court psychologists to judges’ pay. Under its proposal, assistants would receive 50% of a judge’s salary, psychologists 45% and hearing secretaries 35%.

Bublienė said implementing the changes would require about €30 million in additional funding next year, while the draft budget provides €3.8 million. The amount allocated would allow the three groups’ salaries to rise by about 4.6% at most, she said, adding that this did not meet the court system’s expectations.

Courts have legal means to increase these employees’ pay without amending the law, Bublienė said. “The only thing we do not have is money,” she said.

The average net salary of a judge’s assistant is currently €1,427, compared with an average net wage of €1,706 in the public sector, according to Bublienė. She said recruitment competitions had recently failed because there were no applicants willing to work for the offered pay, despite substantial workloads.

“This is not an expense; it is an investment,” Bublienė said, warning that failing to invest in time could weaken the court system and its resilience.

The draft allocates €124,000,755 to the court system next year. The Judicial Council says the actual need is €158,000,726. National Courts Administration Director Jurga Greičienė also stressed the importance of ensuring sustainable funding for the courts.

The proposed amendments are being considered by a working group at the Justice Ministry. Finance Ministry representatives have criticised the plan, saying that tying court employees’ salaries to judges’ pay would require a large sum immediately.

The Seimas Law and Law Enforcement Committee voted to return the court budget proposal to the government for revision in line with the Judicial Council’s stated needs. Committee member Ignas Vėgėlė said court independence depended on funding.

Court funding amounted to about 0.16% of Lithuania’s GDP last year and 0.15% this year. Under the planned three-year budget, it would be about 0.15% in 2027, 0.14% in 2028 and 0.13% in 2029. The Judicial Council says Lithuania’s court funding remains among the lowest in the European Union. In 2024, Lithuania allocated €65 per resident to its judicial system, compared with €111 in Latvia and €86 in Estonia.