Alert and worry. These are the two reactions shared by three judges to the increasingly perpetual collapse of the courts. Without greater public investment and in-depth changes, they warn, delays will worsen, with the consequence of risking a loss of credibility of justice in the eyes of citizens.
“We cannot continue like this. Justice is a public service and we cannot provide it adequately,” summarizes the judge of Social Court 23 of Barcelona, Mar Serna. “More and more trials are coming and we are the same judges,” says the judge of the Court of First Instance 5 of the Catalan capital, Bibiana Segura. “The cases are more and more complex and require time that we do not have if we want to read all the documentation,” adds judge Montserrat Raga, of contentious court 5.
Official data helps to understand this perpetual collapse. Last year, 1,218,357 cases were introduced into the Catalan judicial system and 1,122,876 were resolved. The community’s litigation rate is nine points higher than that of Spain as a whole (154 disputes per 1,000 inhabitants, 145 for the state average). And all this with a staff of 855 judges, which is equivalent to 10.6 judges per 100,000 inhabitants compared to 12 in Spain. In short, the system is not capable of absorbing and responding to all the problems that arise.
To reach the Spanish average, Catalonia would need to have 112 additional judges. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, announced, after agreeing with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, a strengthening of the courts, although focused on the problem of multiple recidivism (trials for thefts and thefts). The measures will begin to take shape in December.
However, collapse is not exclusive to criminal jurisdiction. On the contrary, there are longer delays in trials, for example due to unfair dismissals (social jurisdiction), debts between individuals (civil) or claims against administrative acts, such as public contracts or benefits (litigation- administrative). Some views of the latter are already scheduled in Barcelona for 2027, but the problem is repeated throughout Spain.
A country that wants to be competitive cannot allow this situation
Mar Serna, magistrate
They are rare, but Raga says that in the courts of Barcelona there was a case of a dependency applicant who died without seeing how his appeal against the administration’s refusal to grant him benefits was resolved. “For the person who is waiting, it is very distressing to see that they will not have an answer for two years, but we are saturated,” laments the judge.
“And pronouncing the sentence does not mean that the issue is settled,” warns Serna. In the field of work, for example, to the time (between a year and a year and a half, in the best case) it takes to file a judgment for unfair dismissal, we must add the resolution of appeals then the execution of the sentence. During all this time, Serna points out, many companies have already disappeared, posing even more problems for workers to be able to receive all wages and salary allowances.
“A country that wants to be competitive cannot allow this situation,” asserts Serna, who also warns that the problem in Catalan jurisdictions is more pressing because it exceeds the state average in terms of layoffs. And he warns against future trends linked to sectors where employment is less stable: “If the active population continues to grow but is increasingly oriented towards services, hotels and construction, there will have more and more conflicts around layoffs. »
For those who wait, it is distressing to realize that they will not receive a response for two years.
Montserrat Raga, magistrate
Raga also points out that the collapse of its jurisdiction has a direct impact on major administrative processes such as oppositions. “Sometimes, after two years, we decide that the competition was poorly organized,” he describes. A situation which, regrets the judge, “generates insecurity not only for the person who contested the competition, but for the rest of the people involved”.
The judge regrets that her competence is generally last on the list of reinforcements decided by governments: “The longer we delay, the less effective our administrative control function is. In 2019, we were in 8,000 cases and now in more than 12,000. It’s impossible,” he summarizes.
In civil matters, Segura explains, something similar is happening: “More and more trials are coming and we are the same judges. » Since the crisis caused by the pandemic, the number of disputes that have reached these courts in Catalonia has increased by almost 40%. So far this year, the increase is 12% in the magistrates’ courts and 14% in the civil sections of provincial courts.
The collapse affects the pockets of the plaintiffs. “Often it depends on the amount claimed whether a self-employed person can continue to pay for residence or caregiving for their family members, and with any luck it will take a year to recover,” Segura warns. In its jurisdiction, the collapse has worsened since the government increased in 2023 the amount (from 6,000 to 15,000 euros) which requires more preliminary hearings to be held.
More and more trials are coming and we are the same judges
Bibiana Segura, magistrate
Serna believes that the solution, in terms of social jurisdiction, involves a two-pronged approach. “There are procedural and organizational problems, more resources and more judges would help, but it would not completely solve the problem,” he explains. Among the examples he cites, promoting mediation agreements recognized by all stakeholders (notably FOGASA) or further specializing the courts, in addition to procedural changes.
In contentious courts, Raga identifies the solution: more judges (not courts, because he believes that civil servants can handle the workload well, but the backlog due to the collapse of cases must be resolved by judges) .
In civil cases, according to Segura, it would be necessary to invest in the creation of new courts, that is, to have not only more judges, but also civil servants and lawyers for the administration of justice, in because of their importance in the handling of business. “Having a good office of civil servants and lawyers helps us a lot, the judges, but there are victims of civil servants who are not covered,” he denounces. “It seems that no one wants to invest, but the solution will not come if the investment is not doubled,” he adds.
