The General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has demanded that the Ministry of Justice create 293 new courts this year. The response from the department headed by Pilar Llop was that “a greater increase in the creation of new judicial units is not possible, since that is how it is budgeted for 2023.” That is to say, that only the 70 courts contemplated in the latest State Budgets will be created, with a budget of 13.65 million. This claim comes when judges and prosecutors will go on indefinite strike starting May 16 if their working conditions are not improved.
This request by the governing body of the judges was made at a meeting on April 19 during the mixed commission made up of members of the CGPJ, members of the State Attorney General’s Office and the Llop ministry team.
According to legal sources to EL MUNDO, the members Juan Martínez Moya, José Antonio Ballestero and Álvaro Cuesta participated on behalf of the CGPJ. On behalf of the ministry were the Secretary of State for Justice, Tontxu Rodríguez; the general director for the Public Justice Service, María dels Angels García Vidal, and Aitor Cubo Contreras, general director of Digital Transformation of the Justice Administration. The Public Prosecutor’s Office was attended by María Antonia Sanz Gaite, Chief Prosecutor of the Fiscal Inspection; Esmeralda Rasillo López, chief prosecutor of the Support Unit; and Ana García León, Chief Prosecutor of the Technical Secretariat.
The aforementioned meeting took place after, a month earlier, the Ministry of Justice sent the CGPJ the request to prepare an updated proposal on the need to increase the judicial staff in Spain.
According to sources present at the meeting, at the meeting, the members exposed the need to create 293 new courts in the coming months and informed the Ministry of the agreement that the Permanent Commission of the CGPJ had adopted days before, describing these new ones as “essential”. judicial units. The figure comes from a report prepared by the Council Inspection Service after analyzing all the previous opinions sent by the presidency of the National Court and all the Superior Courts of Justice of the autonomous communities.
In addition, the Inspection report takes into account the average workloads of the bodies of the different courts in the years 2021 and 2022, analyzes the level of resolution and the average pendencies by judicial districts and the existence of reinforcement measures in the bodies that comprise them, among other variables.
Most of the courts that are considered collapsed, and where therefore the creation of a new judicial district is urgently needed (the majority are single-person courts), have far exceeded 100% workload, sometimes exceeding the 200%, according to Council data. Hence, despite the refusal of the Llop team, the members insisted on the need to jointly address the real needs of the judicial plant between the Ministry and the CGPJ. Given the refusal to create the 293, the Council reported that the list of the 70 courts that are in the worst situation in Spain would be studied, to determine where the new judicial districts should be created this year.
Similarly, legal sources explain that, with the creation of 70 new courts per year, it is estimated that between 260 and 270 new positions for judges should be offered over the next decade in order to guarantee the needs arising from the increase in the number of judges. judicial plant.
These demands occur coincidentally with the announcement by judges and prosecutors of an indefinite strike starting next May 16. The conveners demand salary improvements but also call the creation of courts and the call for oppositions for access to the bodies of the Judicial and Prosecutor Career as “essential”.
This Wednesday, for the first time since 2008, the so-called Compensation Board, the body legally provided for improvements in the salary conditions of judges and prosecutors, will meet. The meeting will be attended by representatives of all groups of judges and prosecutors, the Ministries of Justice and Finance, the CGPJ and the Prosecutor’s Office. The outcome of the aforementioned meeting depends on whether or not the fifth strike of togados in our country will be held.
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