Justice convenes the strike committee next Thursday, when 18 days of strikes will be completed in demand for a salary increase derived from the increase in their functions
The indefinite strike that is maintained throughout Spain by the lawyers of the Administration of Justice -formerly known as judicial secretaries-, and that started on February 24faces its fourth week of strikes without a solution to the conflict seeming to be found, which is on its way to affect about 175,000 signs in the coming days in judicial bodies. The management of this body, which integrates 4,200 officials responsible for the processing of cases and the disposition of funds of the courts, corresponds to the Ministry commanded by Pilar Llop.
Lawyers, custodians of judicial faith and without whose intervention a multitude of procedures cannot go ahead -among them the notification of sentences- They demand a salary adjustment which according to this group accumulates almost 14 years behind since in 2009 a legal reform increased the tasks for which they are responsible.
Until now, the department chaired by Pilar Llop has refused to attend to their claims and their protest has been described as “political”, although the conflict could enter a new stage from the next February 16th, date on which a meeting with the strike committee on behalf of the organizing organizations, which are the National College of Justice Administration Lawyers, the Progressive Union of Lawyers and the Independent Association.
The paralysis in the courts directly affects citizens and has also had consequences in some matters of media interest such as the investigation in the National Court of Acuamed casewhich investigates an alleged corrupt scheme within the state water company, forcing the Judge Manuel Garcia Castellon to suspend the statement of three defendants scheduled last week. In Alicante, last Wednesday they had to suspend the draw for the selection of the jury popular for the murder of the widow of CAM Vicente Sala.
court payments
Last Friday, the conveners assured that the strikes had already affected 125,000 procedures (which, according to the calculations of the lawyers, represents a reduction of its activity of 60 percent), and they calculated that from that moment until next Thursday, the date of the meeting, 55,000 more trials could be suspended.
They also claim that another 150 million euros will be blocked in the judicial accounts, which will be added to the 432 already pending delivery. The management of these deposits is essential, since judicial payments to individuals are made from them (alimony, debts, compensationetc.) and the Public Treasury (fines, deposits, etc.)
The conveners regret that given the current situation, and when “the damages are already irreversible”, the Ministry has decided let almost another week go by for that first contact, “with the clear purpose of prolonging the conflict to the wait for tracking to dropwhich is not going to happen”, according to what the cococantes pointed out in a statement after learning the date of the meeting. They add that they are aware that behind the figures that they have been making public for weeks “There is a citizen who is being harmed by the negligence of the directors of this Ministry of Justice.”
According to the latest data, 76 percent of the lawyers of the Administration of Justice they supported the strikes last Friday, a percentage that Justice lowers below 30 percent.
Affectation lawyers
The protest undoubtedly affects the citizens, but it also has a special impact on the group of lawyers, who over the last 15 days have seen suspend, often at the last minute, thousands of signs.
In fact, from the General Council of the Spanish Lawyers (CGAE)which is the body that brings together all the bar associations in Spain, demands that the strikers notify the parties sufficiently in advance of the suspension of the indications, to avoid unnecessary transfers of the lawyers to the courts, in many occasions to provinces very far from their offices in question.
According to the Lawyers, the materialization of this exercise should not undermine others such as the right to defense and the right of access to justice, especially in the most urgent cases or in which people in vulnerable situations are involved. The lawyers consider that both the Ministry of Justice and the conveners themselves have the obligation to continue talks to reach an agreement as soon as possible.
“Suspending judicial acts already supposes in itself severe damage to the functioning of Justice, but forcing professionals and litigants to wasting thousands of hours going to signs that sometimes the conveners know in advance that they will not be held It supposes an additional unjust punishment to those who, before the strike began, were the main victims of the collapse of the courts and tribunals,” this body recently said in an official statement.
This week, Justice summoned the 21 government secretaries to a face-to-face meeting. It’s about the hierarchical superiors of the lawyers in each territory, but the strikers warned that these professionals who occupy positions of free appointment are the top of the hierarchy, appointed discretionally by the Government, for which reason They don’t represent them.
The lawyers have been in this conflict with the Ministry of Justice for months, which until now had led them to stage specific strikes that have already forced the suspension of trials and statements, including some of the known as ‘Villarejo case‘ at the National Court.
They reproach the Government for not having introduced an amendment to the Organizational Efficiency Act so that “the remuneration of the body of Lawyers of the Administration of Justice refer to those corresponding to the judicial careerin the proportion of improvement that is considered appropriate to the responsibilities inherent to this group”, a provision that the Executive of Pedro Sánchez is not willing, for the moment, to assume.