Judge from the Bucharest Court after the CSM appointed as president a magistrate who has been working at the court for less than a month: “Sympathetic persons are delegated”

Judge Ana Maria Puiu from the Bucharest Court draws attention, in a post on Facebook, to the recent decision of the Superior Council of the Magistracy to delegate to the leadership of the Bucharest Court a judge with less than a month's experience at this court, although the institution has magistrates with extensive experience. Three magistrates from the Bucharest Court, including Judge Puiu, expressed their agreement to be delegated to lead, but the CSM preferred a magistrate with no experience at this court.

• On Wednesday, the CSM delegated to the position of president of the Bucharest Court, judge Cosmin Sterea Grosu, who until December 2025 held a technical position in the Superior Council of the Magistracy.
• The position of president of the Bucharest Court is blocked from 2023, after the former president, Laura Radu, elected member of the CSM, suspended herself from office, so the position cannot be put up for competition. From that moment until now, the position has also been filled by competition.
• HotNews requested a point of view from the CSM, which replied that the decision regarding the delegation of judge Sterea is to be published, without commenting on the issues pointed out by judge Puiu.

“Delegates are people liked, desired, approved by management”

Judge Ana Maria Puiu writes on Facebook about how the Bucharest Court, the largest in the country, ended up being led by delegation for 6 years, accusing the former president of the court, judge Laura Radu, that after arriving at the CSM she preferred to block the leadership post, even though she only had one year left in her mandate.

“I would start by saying that we are in a situation where, although Judge Laura Radu could have been – according to the law, as a general rule – the president of the Bucharest Court for a maximum of 6 years, the period of 2 terms of 3 years each, from January 2018 to January 2024, once elected as a member of the CSM, starting from January 2023, for a term of 6 years, Judge Laura Radu chose to access a rule of personal favor that allowed him to suspend his leadership position, choosing to satisfy a purely personal interest”, writes judge Ana Maria Puiu in the post on Facebook.

The magistrate also explains the consequences of the former president's decision: for 6 years (how long is the term of office of a CSM member), the post of president cannot be contested at the Bucharest Court.

For the same 6-year period, says Judge Puiu, “the practice of delegations ordered by the Section of Judges of the Superior Council of the Magistracy, at the proposal of the Management Board of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, was opened at the Bucharest Court, from January 2023, until January 2029 when, it is assumed, Mrs. Judge Laura Radu will return to the Bucharest Court to continue her mandate of leadership for one year”.

Although delegations are instruments regulated for emergency situations, breakdowns, for objective reasons, at the Bucharest Court, in fact, continuous delegation is practiced, notes judge Ana Maria Puiu.

The judge also claims that it is well known that “delegates are people sympathetic, wanted, approved by the management, in general, by the current one, in particular”.

Judge Ana Maria Puiu draws attention to the delegations, stressing that they offer neither an open selection procedure nor objective, clear, transparent criteria by which the proposed person is identified.

Three judges from the Bucharest Court agreed to be delegated

“Considering that the only reason why judge Cosmin Sterea-Grossu's secondment to the SCM was terminated, in December 2025, was the implementation at the Bucharest Court of the delegation of a person who has not worked for at least 1 year in the court in which he is to be delegated, contrary to Article 179 related to Article 151 paragraph 3 of Law No. 303/2022, in an attempt to block this illegalities, I, along with two other colleagues, each sent the written agreement for delegation”, explains judge Ana Maria Puiu.

The judge states that the CSM preferred to delegate to the position of president of the Bucharest Court a judge with only 4 years of concrete activity at the 4th District Court of Bucharest and less than a month at the Bucharest Court.

“He was preferred before the 3 vice-presidents, 8 presidents of sections, approximately 250 judges who have worked in the last year in the tried-and-tested court of the Bucharest Court and, much less important, before the other 3 judges who we expressed our agreement for the delegation, who have been working in the Bucharest Court continuously for 2, 6, respectively 8 years, judges with 17, respectively 21 years of professional experience”, he emphasizes judge Ana Maria Puiu, stating that she would have preferred to have “the echo necessary to block/correct this irregularity” within the profession.

The magistrate says that the injustices within the system and the feeling of helplessness experienced by many judges in the face of injustices, to which is added the excessive volume of cases, the inherent pressure, have led thousands of judges to retire at the age of professional maturity, and others die at ever younger ages.

Asked by HotNews to express a point of view, the CSM stated that “the decision of the Section for Judges no. 48/January 21, 2026 by which the measure of delegation in the management position was ordered will be motivated and published on the Council's website, and will be accessible to any interested person”. The institution did not want to make any other clarifications in relation to the aspects reported by judge Ana Maria Puiu.

HotNews also requested a point of view from the Bucharest Court of Appeal, but so far the court has not responded. According to the Law on the status of judges, the delegation to management positions is ordered by the decision of the Section for judges of the Superior Council of Magistracy, upon the proposal of the president of the court where the vacant management position is located. If the vacant position is that of the president of the court, the delegation is made at the proposal of the governing board of the hierarchically superior court, in the present case the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

Who is the new president of the Bucharest Court

Judge Cosmin Grossu Sterea was delegated, on Wednesday, by the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM), as president of the Bucharest Court, for a period of 6 months. He replaces judge Dragoș Mocanu, who was promoted to the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

A graduate of the Faculty of Law of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police Academy, Judge Sterea graduated from the National Institute of Magistracy in 2015, starting as a judge at the 1st District Court.

Judge Sterea has not held any leadership position at the court level until now, the delegation to the leadership of the largest court in the country also representing the first managerial experience, according to the CV.

Cosmin Grossu Sterea appears as a judge at the Bucharest Court since January 2024, but he did not work in the court because, according to his CV, between February 2021 and December 2025 he was seconded to the CSM, as head of the IT and Judicial Statistics Service.