The judiciary of Spanish Malaga is in a state of "technical default"

Justice of one of the largest cities in Spain is in a dramatic situation.  The number of cases has grown exponentially in recent years.  At the same time, the number of judges remained the same, which significantly increased the professional load on each of them.  This was announced on May 9 by Dean Jose María Páez, representing the interests of the judicial community of Malaga, during his report on the work of the courts in 2021.

According to the Dean, the responsibility for the current situation lies with the Ministry of Justice, which previously made a decision limiting the number of judges in the southern province.  At the same time, the judicial reality by now requires a change in the established priorities and the creation of 27 new courts.  This would keep the number of Andalusian judges in line with the EU average.

The courts of first instance found themselves in the most difficult situation.  The inspection carried out showed that it is necessary to create at least seven new courts of this kind.  A difficult situation in the country has also developed with the investigating courts, the  powers of which include resolving questions about the presence of corpus delicti in the actions of suspects.

One of the social consequences of the failure of the Malaga judicial system, according to the experts, could be the situation with violence against women.  Cases of this kind are dealt with by three courts, which on their own cannot cope with a flurry of appeals and are forced to join the investigating courts.

If the suspect is detained by the police in the afternoon, then the investigating court deals with his case.  And the very next day, a court specializing in cases of violence begins to deal with the same case.  As a result, there is a re-victimization of victims of violence, who have to appear twice in various judicial instances.

According to the data provided by Paez, 14 courts of inquiry of Malaga received 70,136 applications in 2021.  This means that each court has more than 5 thousand court cases, while the normal mode of operation of the court involves no more than 3.3 thousand cases per year.  As a result, judges are forced to deal with a significantly larger number of cases than they can handle.

 “The number of judges has been reduced to an orchestra on the Titanic,” Paez said.  He praised his colleagues for their work, which was 261% effective in 2021 (according to the independent verification).  A 35-year-old person can cope with such a load, but not a 64-year-old one, the regional media quoted him as saying.  As a result, many judges are forced to quit or retire, as the tense situation at work affects their health.