The Constitutional Court awarded 765 euros in compensation due to a lawsuit that has lasted nearly four years

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia has determined that Snježana Bilandžić from Dicmo, in a lawsuit lasting nearly four years, was deprived of the right to a trial within a reasonable time and has awarded her compensation of 765.00 euros. The Decision and Ruling number U-IIIA-2604/2026 were passed on September 30, 2026, and published in the Official Gazette (Narodne novine) no. 124/2026 of October 30, 2026, under serial number 1484. By the same decision, the County Court in Šibenik was ordered to decide on the case conducted before it under number Gž R-46/2026 in the shortest possible time, but no longer than six months.

The decision was unanimously made by the First Panel for Deciding on Constitutional Complaints at a session held on September 30, 2026, composed of Judge Sanja Bezbradica Jelavić as President of the Panel and Judges Andrej Abramović, Dražen Bošnjaković, Biljana Kostadinov, Rajko Mlinarić, and Miroslav Šumanović. The legal basis for the decision on compensation is Article 63, paragraph 3 of the Constitutional Act on the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, and the established violation refers to Article 29, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to a trial within a reasonable time.

Course of the lawsuit from the initial claim to the constitutional complaint

The civil proceedings were initiated on December 22, 2022, by the applicant’s lawsuit for payment from an employment relationship before the Municipal Court in Split, under number Pr-2297/2022. The defendant submitted the response to the lawsuit on March 7, 2023, and the first hearing was held only on September 13, 2024.

• October 16, 2024, and November 8, 2024 – hearings held; by the ruling of November 8, 2024, a financial expert witness report was ordered
• February 19, 2025 – the financial expert submitted the findings and opinion
• July 3, 2025 – the main hearing was concluded
• September 29, 2025 – the main hearing was reopened to supplement the factual state
• October 9, 2025 – the hearing was concluded
• January 2, 2026 – the applicant requested the protection of the right to a trial within a reasonable time before the County Court in Split
• March 12, 2026 – appeal to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia because the request had not been decided upon
• March 27, 2026 – judgment number Pr-2297/2022 published
• May 27, 2026 – the Supreme Court, by ruling number Gžzp-174/2026-7, rejected the applicant’s appeal
• July 6, 2026 – constitutional complaint filed

What the Constitutional Court assessed

The Court determined that the constitutional complaint is admissible because the applicant had previously exhausted the legal remedies available to her, in accordance with the position from ruling number U-IIIA-2199/2024 of October 8, 2024, published in the Official Gazette (Narodne novine) no. 131/24.

The reasonableness of the duration of the proceedings was assessed according to the usual criteria – the complexity of the case, the behavior of the applicant and the competent authorities, and the importance of the matter to the applicant. The Court concluded that this is not a complex case, that the proceedings have been pending before the first-instance court for almost the entire period under consideration and are still ongoing, and that the applicant did not contribute to their duration.

The total duration of the proceedings from the filing of the lawsuit to the decision of the Constitutional Court amounts to three years, nine months, and eight days.

Deadlines and obligations imposed by the decision

The decision obliges the County Court in Šibenik to render a decision within six months, counting from the first following day after publication in the Narodne novine. The President of the second-instance court is obliged to provide the Constitutional Court with a written notification of the date of the rendering and dispatch of the decision within eight days of its dispatch, and no later than eight days from the expiration of the deadline specified in the ruling.

Compensation of 765.00 euros shall be paid from the state budget within three months from the date of submitting a request to the Ministry of Justice, Administration and Digital Transformation. The Court determined the amount of compensation taking into account the circumstances of the specific case as well as the overall economic and social conditions in the Republic of Croatia.

Request for costs denied

By a ruling in the same case, the applicant’s request for reimbursement of the costs of the constitutional court proceedings was denied. The Court explained that the request was not in any way reasoned or supported by documentation, referring to Article 23 in connection with Article 32 of the Constitutional Act.

The protection of the right to a trial within a reasonable time is regulated by Chapter VI of the Courts Act, and the legal remedies were amended by the Act on Amendments to the Courts Act of 2024. For the applicant, the very fact that no decision had been made on her request for the protection of rights was also disputed, which is why she had to file an appeal with the Supreme Court before the constitutional complaint.

The decision is relevant for anyone waiting for a court decision: it confirms that an unreasonably long duration of litigation, even when the case is not complex and the party does not contribute to the delay, is sanctioned by establishing a violation of a constitutional right, monetary compensation, and a mandatory deadline for the court’s action. The amount of 765.00 euros remains within the framework of the Constitutional Court’s previous practice in cases of this type.

Source: Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia, no. 124/2026 of October 30, 2026, Constitutional Court of the Republic of Croatia, Decision and Ruling number U-IIIA-2604/2026 of September 30, 2026, item 1484.