The most important three problems the Romanian Justice confronts are corruption, the lack of professionalism and the unclear legislation, say the citizens who were involved in a court trial. Those who have never been in court say the main problems are the corruption, the lack of professionalism and the involvement of politics in the Justice process. Unlike the citizens, the people in the system, like the clerks of the courts, never see the judges, prosecutors, lawyers or policemen as corrupt. Lawyers think very high of themselves and have a very poor opinion about the Police, then about judges and prosecutors, the results of a recent poll conducted by Gallup reveal.

The data obtained after the poll are still kept secret by the Superior Magistracy Council (CSM). The poll, presented in the CSM session on Thursday, was financed by the World Bank and it evaluates the public and the professional perception of the Justice employees.

Some of the conclusions:

- Over half of the citizens see the Justice system as corrupt (the most corrupt are the judges, the prosecutors, the lawyers and the policemen). 46% of the people believe that the judges are involved in corruption cases, while 18% believe that ALL judges are involved. Roughly equal figures apply for prosecutors.

- 41% of the clerks of the court say that almost none of the judges are corrupt and 12% say that there are no corrupt judges at all. They respond the same when it comes to prosecutors, policemen and lawyers.

- Only 28% of the lawyers say that there are some corrupt lawyers, but 64% think that policemen are involved in corruption acts. 52% of the lawyers say many prosecutors are corrupt while 42% say that so are the judges.

- The institution with the lowest level of credibility is the Parliament, according to the Gallup poll: 88% of the citizens have little or no confidence at all in the Parliament. The top is completed with the Government and the political parties. The Superior Magistracy Council is not trusted by 48^ of the respondents, while 28% refused to answer.

- 60% of the clerks of the court say the Justice reforms were accelerated after the 2004 elections, while 50% of the populace believed the pace remained the same.