The law is aimed at relieving the courts of Ukraine from considering a significant number of criminal proceedings by panels of three judges - this should speed up the consideration of criminal proceedings in the courts of first instance, as well as reduce the number of criminal cases transferred from one court to another. panel of judges.

To this end, the law amended Part 2 of Art. 31 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, which reduces the number of criminal proceedings, which provides for the possibility of consideration by a panel of judges, by replacing the category of crimes: instead of crimes punishable by more than ten years, it is proposed to provide crimes punishable by more than twelve years.

The law also stipulates that the consideration of criminal proceedings for crimes punishable by more than twelve years is conducted by a panel of judges only at the request of the accused.

According to the official website of the President of Ukraine, so far many criminal proceedings, which are considered in the courts of first instance by a panel of judges, have been in these courts for two or more years. This is due to the growing number of such cases and the difficulty of agreeing on court schedules between board members, especially during vacations.

In addition, many courts have no more than three judges, making it impossible to set up a panel of judges in a pre-trial investigation body after a pre-trial investigation, so cases are referred to appellate courts to change territorial jurisdiction and refer cases to consideration in other courts.

Subsequently, the considerable distance of the court hearing the case from the place of residence of the participants in the criminal proceedings resulted in a low turnout and adjournment of the case. All this negatively affected the speed of the trial and its quality.