Answers to the CCJE Questionnaire Disseminated for the Preparation of the Opinion No: 22

In Turkish judicial system, administrative assistants supports judges. Being subject to the Civil Servants Law No. 657, administrative assistants work in various departments in the judiciary, and carry out duties such as the arrangement of files, exchanging administrative communications, sending notices, and sending and keeping documents and statistics. In addition, court clerks, who are also considered as administrative assistants, are in charge of preparing the court minutes and draft rulings under the supervision of the judge concerned. There are no other types of assistants, however, who assist judges in their judicial work.

Candidate judges, on the other hand, are subject to the Civil Servants Law No. 657 during their training period, but become subject to the Law on Judges and Prosecutors No. 2802 upon their admission to the profession by the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (CJP) after the training period. Alongside the theoretical training they receive at the Academy, the training period of candidate judges is supported with practical training as well, so they may get accustomed to the common practices in various courts. Candidate judges do assist judges in various ways, but the responsibility regarding these works belong to the judge concerned.

Goal 3.3 under the 3rd objective entitled "increasing the quality and quantity of human resources" in the Judicial Reform Strategy Document announced in May 2019, however, states that the institute of judge and prosecutor assistance shall be established, and the procedure for admission to profession shall be changed, envisaging that assistant judge and prosecutors will be included in the judicial services, and the assistant judges and prosecutors may become judges and prosecutors by gaining the right to take a certain exam after serving in this position for a certain period.