On the 3rd of Abril 2025 a new law entitled Ley orgánica del Servicio Público de Justicia (Organic Law on the Efficiency of the Public Justice Service), whose main new development is the substitution of the current courts of first instance and examining magistrates’ courts which have been, up until now, single-judge bodies, with lower courts of first instance – Tribunales de Instancia (collegiate bodies). With this reform, the 3800 single-judge courts that currently exist will become 431 Tribunales de Instancia.
This reform is preceded by a long and intense debate surrounding the structural problems from which Spain’s current judicial system suffers; for instance, the backlog of cases and delay in the resolution of proceedings, the lack of uniformity across these judicial resolutions, the rigidity in the reassignment of resources, the judges and magistrates’ lack of specialisation, the duplication of competences in each judicial district, as well as excessive workloads and a high turnover of interim judges.
It is hoped and expected that this new organisational structure will bring about a better distribution of resources, better specialisation, a better homogeneity across judicial resolutions, as well as the avoidance of oversaturating courts and of excessive delays in the resolution of proceedings.
Under this new system, there will be a Tribunal de Instancia for each judicial district, in addition to the newly established central court of first instance – Tribunal Central de Instancia. The foregoing will be presided over by a chairperson of the Tribunal de Instancia and will take the form of collegiate judicial bodies. In the case that the Tribunal de Instancia is made up of more than eight judges, a Presiding judge shall also be appointed.
In terms of the implementation, structure and organisation:
(i) In those judicial districts in which there is a shared jurisdiction between first instance and examining (magistrates’) courts a single “Civil” and “Examining” section will be established. In these bodies the implementation of the new Tribunal de Instancia must be ready by April 2025.
(ii) In those districts where there may be separated jurisdiction, two different sections will be created: one “Civil” and one for “Preliminary Examination”. In these bodies the introduction of the new Tribunal de Instancia must be ready by October 2025.
(iii) In judicial districts with specialised bodies in specific areas (for instance, violence against women), distinct sections will be created (such as: Family, Child and Learning section, the Violence against Women section, the Child and Adolescent Violence section and other sections specialised in minors, criminal matters, penitentiary surveillance, contentious-administrative matters, social matters etc.) In these bodies the implementation of the new Tribunal de Instancia must be ready by December 2025.
Possible challenges whilst implementing this reform.
The implementation of the Tribunales de Instancia presents numerous challenges that could put the success of this reform at risk. Firstly, the entering into force of the law and the deadlines for its introduction do not align with the deadline the Government is bound to in passing the regulatory implementation of the reform. More specifically, the Government has six months from the entering into force to develop the reform through regulations however, many of these new Tribunales de Instancia, those of judicial districts in which there is a shared jurisdiction between first instance and preliminary investigation, must be constituted within a period of no more than three months, while it is still possible that there is no regulatory development to regulate its functioning.
On the other hand, it is important to remember that currently there are neither enough judges, public prosecutors nor Letrados de la Adminstración (LAJs) (Legal Advisors in the Administration of Justice) to take on the workload forecast for the new courts, in particular in those with specialised sections. This is compounded by the lack of replacements for retirees. It is estimated that it will be necessary to fill at least 300 judicial posts a year, and despite this, only around 100 per year are filled currently.
No less worrying is it that this organisational change is aimed at homogenising the outcome of judicial decisions, in fact, the law expressly provides for the constitution of sectoral boards of judges which shall meet to unify criteria, which may be difficult to reconcile with the principle of judicial independence, and it will not be easy to apply in practice. Once the reform is implemented, we shall see if this model will be maintained over time.
This is in addition to the lack of infrastructure and territorial inequalities. The centralisation of judicial bodies in the Tribunales de Instancia require appropriate headquarters, however, some of the current infrastructure is ill-prepared to take on this change. Furthermore, the distribution of resources between the Autonomous Communities is unequal, which threatens to cause the speed of access to the justice system to be wildly inconsistent. More worrying still is that, to date, the necessary budget allocation for this organisational change has not been approved which casts doubt upon whether this reform can be implemented within the time limits laid out.
Ultimately, the reform looks to take a step forward towards the modernisation of the judicial system, but its success will depend on appropriate planning, sufficient budget allocation, proper development of regulations and a smooth implementation.
Julio González
Vilá Abogados
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14th of February 2025
