The TSJC asks the State and the CGPJ for urgent opposition: "We will have chairs but not enough judges to fill them"

Barcelona15% of judge and magistrate positions in Catalonia are vacant. Of the 871 positions, 132 are not assigned, apart from other circumstances such as medical leave or permits. Therefore, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) has requested this Wednesday from the Ministry of Justice and the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) to urgently convene extraordinary competitive examinations, beyond the average of 120 annual positions that are usually offered for the entire State. Given the political announcements to create more judicial positions –91 for Catalonia this year– the president of the TSJC, Mercè Caso, has demanded that what is needed is for there to be more judges to occupy these posts: "Otherwise, we will have chairs, but not enough judges to fill them".

The president of the TSJC has thanked that her request to create new positions has been heard but has insisted that judges are needed to occupy them. Caso has also explained the "perverse situation" that the lack of judges in Catalonia leads to: since it is the place in the State where there are usually the most vacancies, it is also the one that receives the most new judges each year, and once they gain experience and can opt for a transfer, they usually prefer to move closer to their places of origin. "Furthermore, these are the ages when people have more children, our maternity incidence is much higher than the rest of the State," Caso added. This circumstance also explains why a good proportion of the judges working in Catalonia do not speak Catalan.

In addition to the lack of judges, Caso has also pointed out the deficiencies in the staff of judicial officials. To the point that it is difficult to implement

the judicial reform of the efficiency law or Bolaños law, which has changed the organization of the courts. In this case, the TSJC has contacted the Department of Justice of the Generalitat –responsible for hiring these workers– and has admitted that "they were shocked" when they learned about the shortage of personnel.

A backlog of sentences for repeat offenders

Caso has made a balance of his first year as president of the TSJC in a press conference in which he has presented his claims to the Ministry of Justice, which is the one that can call the competitive examinations, and to the CGPJ, which has the competence over the so-called fourth turn, which allows jurists with more than 10 years of experience to achieve the category of magistrate. He has also shown his commitment to improving the status of Catalan in the courts and has encouraged people to "report any violation of linguistic rights".Regarding the legal debate around euthanasia following the case of Noelia Castillo, Caso has asked that the law specify which people can intervene judicially in the event of an assisted death procedure to avoid "excessively long periods", as has happened.

The president of the TSJC has also recalled the reinforcements that are underway to speed up rapid trials that deal with, among other issues, recidivism. At present, about 200 rapid trials are being held in Barcelona. "This puts the execution of all these sentences into crisis," warned Caso. For this reason, a reinforcement has been added to the courts dedicated to applying these sentences: "To add the aggravating factor of recidivism, it is not enough to say that a person has been arrested many times. It can only be applied when they have a final sentence," explained Caso about the importance of shortening the deadlines for executing sentences.