The Dean of the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB), Cristina Vallejo, has warned that she sees it as "impossible" to timely apply the organizational change in the courts of the Catalan capital, as mandated by the efficiency law for the end of the year. This reform affects the third phase of deployment and requires significant investment that has not materialized.
For the implementation to be viable, Vallejo pointed out the urgent need for economic resources and personnel. She highlighted that none of the 55 judge positions initially projected for this reform have been created, a critical deficit for adopting the new model.
“"In the civil area, we have 110,000 ongoing cases in Barcelona and we lack sufficient resources, both judges and personnel, for the implementation to proceed."
The ICAB, aligning itself with the request made by 55 deans of judges across Spain, including the one in Barcelona, is requesting a "progressive application" of the model change. The proposal suggests starting with the mercantile jurisdiction, continuing with family and disability, followed by civil jurisdiction, and leaving the penal area for the final phase.
In addition to the lack of judges, the ICAB stresses the need to reduce the percentage of interim civil servants and emphasizes that the digitalization of work systems is essential, a process still pending in the penal field, to correctly apply the new organizational structure.
