Dominican Republic Supreme Court reforms judicial backlog processes

To address a critical judicial backlog, the Civil and Commercial Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice in the Dominican Republic implemented structural administrative changes. By the end of 2011, the chamber faced a backlog of over 10,000 undecided cassation appeals, driven by a shortage of legal staff and an increasing volume of new filings.

To resolve the crisis, the court inverted its traditional administrative process. Instead of judges individually drafting sentence projects that often stalled due to differing legal criteria, the court moved to a plenary session model. Under this system, specialized legal assistants present organized files to the full body of civil judges once a week for collective deliberation and decision-making.