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attend, secondly due to the accused’s inability to attend and, Ànally, due to a request
by the court for further investigation/evidence. Moreover, 50% of the cases before the
Mixed Jury Court of Appeal and more than 70% of the cases in the rest of the penal
courts are heard following at least one adjournment.
D. The Economics of the Greek justice system
In the knowledge that this was a dangerous exercise, an attempt was made to quan-
tify the cost of judicial services, that is the cost the State has to pay each judicial
year for the determination of a case, from Àling of the relevant action/application to
the issuance of a Ànal and unappealable judgment and the enforcement of such judg-
ment. The collection of Ànancial details in relation to the operation of Justice proved
to be particularly difÀcult because the budget of the Ministry of Justice does not con-
tain individual detailed budgets on the income and operational expenses of each ju-
dicial unit of the country or, at least, each judicial district, but rather for the entirety
of civil and administrative courts of the country (except for the Exchequer’s Council).
To respond to the working assumption:
how much
does a trial cost to the tax payer
(on the basis of the assumptions set out in the Study), the following were used: the
published data of the annual State Budget and Final Statement, respectively, (b) À-
nancial data deriving from in situ interviews of competent personnel in Directorates
of Finance of the Ministry of Justice and (c) Ànancial data deriving from the in situ in-
terviews of competent personnel in Directorates of Finance of the Fund for Financing
Judicial Buildings.