BarcelonaA common criticism of the judicial system is that it continues to function "like in the 19th century." But now things could start to change: a law is due to be rolled out in 2025 that aims to bring justice up to date and make it more agile. The efficiency law will change the way courts are organised – including their names – and will bring new features that aim to improve the protection of children and victims of sexual crimes. The new system will be applied in three phases – in June, October and December – affecting first the smallest municipalities and finally the largest cities.
Disappearing courts and new courts of first instance
In the coming months we will no longer hear about the courts of instruction, criminal or social, because the courts in charge of a single magistrate will disappear as such. Instead, a different system will be established with the new courts of first instance: there will be only one in each judicial district - in Catalonia there are 49, a territorial distribution that will be maintained - which will bring together all the judges, although they can be distributed in different specialized sections.
Consequently, judicial officials will no longer be assigned to a single judge, but, under the direction of a legal adviser, they can be assigned to one task or another depending on the volume of work. For the Secretary of Justice Administration of the Generalitat, Iolanda Aguilar, the flexibility that this model provides is key. In fact, she is confident that "it will help to decongest the courts and make them work more quickly."
Although most of the changes that this law will bring are related to the organization of the courts, one of the most relevant novelties is that in macro-cases up to three judges can be assigned instead of just one. With this action, it is intended to prevent them from absorbing all the work capacity of a court.
New specialty in violence against children
The specialized sections in which the judges will be distributed to the new courts of first instance correspond largely to the current specialties. However, the new law enables two new ones. In the civil field, the family, childhood and capacity section is created (in contrast to the family courts until now) and, at the criminal level, the section on violence against children and adolescents. The latter will deal with cases in which the victims are minors, which until now were handled by the criminal courts, with the exception of those related to a case of gender-based violence, which will be referred to the courts of this specialty. The law also establishes that these cases will have to be processed preferentially. On the contrary, the minors section is maintained, which deals with cases in which the defendant is between 14 and 18 years old.
More powers for violence against women
From October, judges dealing with violence against women will be in charge of some crimes that had not been included in this speciality because they dealt only with violence within couples. They will incorporate competence in crimes of female genital mutilation, forced marriage, harassment with sexual connotations and all sexual crimes, which until now were the responsibility of the investigating courts. A change that was already foreseen in the law of the only if yes
In the area of gender-based violence, the new law also establishes that all women and minors who are victims of sexual crimes have the right to a court-appointed lawyer regardless of their income. In addition, one of the possibilities opened by this law is that specialized courts can act in more than one judicial district. In fact, the Generalitat intends to unify the specialty of gender-based violence in Barcelona and Hospitalet de Llobregat with seven courts. They currently have five and one, respectively.
Pending reorganization
The new powers will mean a greater workload for the courts of gender violence. The Ministry of Justice estimates that it will be approximately 20% more, although sources from the judiciary and the prosecution warn that it could be much more. Likewise, the change will relieve the investigating courts that until now dealt with sexual crimes outside the couple.
The organizational chart is still pending to clarify how many judges will be dedicated to each area and also how many will be dedicated to the new specialty of violence against children and adolescents. The ministry is in charge of calculating how many judges will be assigned to each specialty and will reflect the new distribution in a royal decree, of which it has already announced that one possibility is that judges who until now were investigating judges will now dedicate themselves exclusively to cases of gender violence.
Various voices consulted by the ARA believe that in order to absorb the expected volume of work, the judicial staff would have to be expanded and, thus, put an end to the collapse of justice. The Generalitat's claim, which it maintains despite this new organisation, is that Catalonia needs another 55 judges.
Without budget
However, the law does not include any budget allocation and the expansion of the workforce is left to future decisions. From the Barcelona prosecutor's office, Neus Pujal, has spoken out on the matter: "Resources must be allocated to the administration of justice. If resources are not allocated, this reform will not go ahead."
Another aspect that affects the economic sphere is that the law creates new positions of responsibility for civil servants and lawyers in the administration of justice, which will therefore mean higher salaries. The Generalitat has not yet calculated what increase in cost this will mean for the Catalan administration.
Mandatory mediation in the civil and commercial sphere
Mediation or another alternative method of conflict resolution will be mandatory to initiate a civil or commercial judicial procedure. This requirement aims to decongest the courts and avoid litigation that could have been resolved through negotiation. This mandatory mechanism must be covered by the legal aid service in cases where the affected person has the right to free legal aid, an aspect on which the Generalitat has not yet calculated the economic impact it will have, but which it plans to channel through the legal aid service.
Justice of the Peace Courts
The new judicial organization will also mean that the justices of the peace will be replaced by municipal justice offices in localities where there is no seat of a court of first instance. Broadly speaking, they will have the same powers as the justice of the peace courts, with minor extensions. One of the objectives of the Generalitat is to promote the digitalisation of these offices so that they can be a secure access point for judicial videoconferences, for example, of witnesses or experts who are going to appear in a trial without having to travel.
Phased deployment
The new organisational model described in the efficiency law will be implemented in three phases, starting with the smallest judicial districts and ending with the largest. In Catalonia, since 2012, judicial officials have been organised using this model in some localities, and right now 28 of the 49 judicial districts already operate in this way. Until now, it has been implemented little by little, with works being carried out in the judicial buildings to create more open work spaces, but during the next year it will be implemented in buildings that are already in operation.
The first courts of first instance that must begin to operate have a deadline of 1 June. In Catalonia, this date affects 33 judicial districts, but there are only seven that do not yet work with the judicial office model. They are Valls, Santa Coloma de Farners, Vic, Martorell, San Feliu de Llobregat, Rubí and Gavà.
The second round has a deadline of 30 October. In this case, there are two judicial districts in Catalonia that still have all the work to do: L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and Badalona.
The last round of adaptations to the new organisation will end on 31 October. It affects 14 judicial districts in total: the four capitals of the district (partially applied in Girona), Arenys de Mar, Figueres, Manresa, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Sabadell, Terrassa, Mataró, Reus and Granollers.
