According to clujust.ro, candidates who were denied the psychological test in the INM and master’s entrance competitions condemned the “abuse and violations” and asked the CSM to take action. The Higher Council of Magistracy reacted a few days after several testimonies of former candidates appeared in the public space, condemning the “negative media campaign”.

Several candidates who failed the psychological test to enter the National Institute of Masters, an institution coordinated by the Higher Council of Masters, said they felt unfair.

Prospective judges were asked whether they had an active sex life or enjoyed unusual sexual practices.

The candidate considers this contest a “masquerade” and says that psychological testing was conducted “with defects.”

According to the candidate quoted by clujust.ro, the commission that corrected papers in the disciplines of criminal law and criminal procedure also committed “abuses”.

It states that among the questions received during the psychological testing were also questions that are more related to the intestinal transit of the candidates: “Do you feel constipated?”, “Do you have diarrhea?”, “Do you have stomach problems “. ?”.

“Is the texture of future judges’ excrement really that important?” — asked a former candidate for the competition at the National Institute of National Statistics, which trains future prosecutors and judges.

“What is the meaning of life?”

Another candidate reported that 56 of the first 300 applicants who scored well in the bar exams were rejected. He blames “offensive behavior” because more emphasis was placed on the results of the psychological test than on legal knowledge. Although she was refused, she claims that she cannot find out the reason, especially since the psychologist who examined her behaved strangely, clujust.ro also writes.

The expert had a sarcastic look and burst out laughing when asked about the “meaning of life” or what she thought about people.

Another candidate said that one of the tests in the psychological examination, a reasoning test, was identical to last year’s and someone who memorized it could be “almost as smart as Einstein”.

Most of those who want to become judges complained that interviews with psychologists are not recorded, clujust.ro reports.

CSM called to respond

The Association of Judges’ Forum of Romania asked the High Council of Magistrates to adopt a position regarding the opinions expressed in public space by several candidates participating in the current competition for the National Institute of Magistrates.

The association believes that the CSM “must reassure the public that the procedure meets the highest standards typical of the magistrate profession, and that the lack of public information has negative consequences for the way in which future magistrates are recruited, which should be done in accordance with the envisaged procedure in which people who have taken care of continuous training and who have a strong motivation to become magistrates”.

The response of the High Council of Magistrates is also necessary to clear up the existing confusion regarding the alleged application by the examiners of different evaluation criteria, which does not meet the standards of predictability necessary for conducting such an important competition, in which the evaluation must be qualitative and focus on the professional, personal and social skills of the future magistrate.

The introduction of personality tests and the examination of candidates by accredited psychologists with a high level of professional training is necessary to identify possible difficulties associated with the psychological vulnerability of candidates, to identify the ability to reason and make decisions, without allowing arbitrary and arbitrary criteria of predictability.

CSM’s response

On Thursday, the CSM blamed a “media campaign to smear the institution” in the press after “anonymous and subjective opinions of some prospective candidates” were presented, according to the institution’s press release. The institution claimed that the psychologists who conduct the initial testing and re-examination are licensed specialists.

CSM Specifications:

• “Psychologists appointed to conduct testing, respectively, psychological re-examination, were appointed by the decision of the Plenum of the CSM and have a certificate of free practice in the specialty “psychology of work and organization”, at least the “autonomous” level of specialization. , issued in accordance with current legal provisions.
• The results obtained by the candidates examined in the testing procedure, according to the psychological re-examination, were reported according to the same set of criteria, in a non-discriminatory manner for all candidates, established in accordance with the Methodology for the organization and conduct of psychological research. testing for two competitions.
• The test batteries used in the testing are approved by the College of Psychologists in Romania, in this respect there are no differences between the competitions held now and those held starting in 2021.
• It should also be noted that in proportion to the competition for a larger number of places, statistically more candidates registered for the competitive procedure, so the number of rejected candidates will most likely increase in proportion to the number of registered candidates.

CSM “calls to account” the press to “filter information submitted anonymously by people who do not wish to reveal their identity when they bring issues to the public, presented as facts, not simple value judgments.”