EFFICIENCY OF CROATIAN COMMERCIAL COURTS IN PROCESSING BANKRUPTCY CASES

It is generally considered that bankruptcy procedures in Croatia are long-lasting,
and that Commercial courts are sluggish in processing them. Having in mind that efficient
bankruptcy system prevents dissipating of collective wealth created by many generations,
it is important to obtain a reliable insight into its operation. The aim of this research is to
gain a wider statistical description of duration of bankruptcy cases, and to differentiate
Commercial courts by their efficiency in processing bankruptcy cases. The methods used
are descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and panel data analysis. Results show that
efficiency of Commercial courts in Zagreb and Split are below-average, and above-average
in Bjelovar and Zadar. Most cases were opened one or two years ago, but there is also a
large number of lengthy procedures: almost every fifth case lasts for more than six years.