As indicated in the above table, all District Courts in Chişinău and the Supreme Court of Justice registered improvements in commencing trial proceedings on time. All District Courts in Chişinău significantly reduced the number of hearings that started with a delay of over one hour. The Buiucani District Court is the only court that started proceedings on time in more than 50% of the hearings monitored. However���������������������������� ����������������������������������� , monitoring reflected some worsening of conditions in the second period of monitoring, e.g.���������������������������� ,��������������������������� a significant increase in the percentage of hearings that started with a delay of more than one hour in the Supreme Court of Justice (from 2% to 12%), and an increase in the percentage of hearings that started with a delay of more than one hour in the Chişinău Court of Appeals (from 15% to 19%). In the Southeast the situation is very similar. The ����������������������������������������� Ş���������������������������������������� tefan-Vodă District Court appears to be the most disciplined court, although 17% of hearings started with a delay of 30-60 minutes. The Cau���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ş��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� eni District Court and the Bender Court of Appeals each registered significantly high percentages of hearings that started with a delay of over one hour. Table 9: Delays in the commencement of trial proceedings in the Southeast courts Courts in the Southeast Anenii Noi District Court Căuşeni District Court Ştefan Vodă District Court Bender Court of Appeals Length of delay on time 0–15 min. 15–30 min. 30–60 min. over one hour 36% 50% 67% 55% 32% 9% 10% 13% 27% 14% 3% 20% 3% 14% 17% 5% 2% 13% 3% 7% For the entire monitoring period, in Chişinău and in the Southeast,����������������������� the ���������������������� monitoring showed the following delays in the starting of court proceedings: Table 10: Delays in the commencement of trial proceedings (Average percentage per all courts monitored, April 2006 – November 2008) Length of delay Courts in Chişinău Courts in the Southeast All courts monitored on time 0–15 min. 15–30 min. 30–60 min. over one hour 47% 45% 47% 30% 21% 28% 13% 21% 14% 5% 8% 6% 5% 5% 5% These overall figures confirm that starting proceedings on time is not the general rule in the Moldovan courts. While a delay of up to 15 minutes is more or less understandable, the courts must strive to reduce delays of over 15 minutes and especially those of over one hour. Unnecessary delays, especially of hearings in the beginning of case examinations, affect the punctuality of all parties and make it much more difficult for the judge to keep up 31