refer a judge to early retirement. The Council, to date, has referred about 20 judges to retirement, appointed a large number of new judges, and promoted other judges to higher positions. As already mentioned, this had an inevitable impact on the composition of court panels, especially in First Instance Courts of the West Bank. This had a clear adverse impact on the effectiveness and productivity of the courts, because when trial panels changed, the new panels needed time to review the case files and become acquainted with the case. Evidentiary proceedings also had to start from the beginning. The team observed that trial panels changed in over one third of all monitored cases. The issue impacted in a particularly severe manner the First Instance Courts in Nablus and Jericho, with trial panels changing in over half of the monitored cases. The First Instance Court in Qalqilya appeared to be the least affected, with just over 15% of cases involving changes in trial panels. On average, the issue affected Serious Crimes Court branches and First Instance Courts in the West Bank and Gaza at an almost identical rate. Chrt 14 - Trials affected by changes in trial panels (%) 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Trials involving changes Trials involving no changes Such widespread changes in trial panels may have led to a loss of trust by accused and injured parties in the justice system, as it may have given a feeling that the newly-appointed panel will not attain adequate knowledge of the case and will be in a worse position to make informed and well-grounded decisions in the case. 34