Some mistakes have been prescribed for failure to resources solved within the allotted time
The situation of Section 20 of the hearing improved in 2010, but remains the backlog of cases
The saturation and jam situation has improved, but Section 20 of the Court of Barcelona, \u200b\u200bspecializing in violence against women, continues with a significant accumulation of pending litigation and overwork. At December 31, 2010 the number of cases yet to be resolved was 1974, of which most, 1,191 were appeals against judgments of courts of the province. And this court is a funnel that will stop all appeals filed by lawyers for the party not satisfied with a resolution as well as summaries of serious crimes.
cabinets in Section 20 of the Court of Barcelona, \u200b\u200bin the old Palace of Justice in Barcelona, \u200b\u200bsaved dozens of bundles of unresolved lawsuits. Are clearly labeled to avoid unnecessary delays and, above all, to prioritize the cases where someone is arrested, the resolutions on restraining orders and matters may be prescribed if not resolved quickly, as the faults. There has been very few times, but the judges have been forced on occasion to support the prescription of a lack of injuries because the backlog has not allowed them to solve a resource in the period marked by the Supreme Court in an agreement October 2010. Therefore, the court must be alert.
PRESCRIPTION / In a recent ruling, the judges of the 20 admitted that an appeal had been "paralyzed" for more than six months "due to the huge backlog of appeals pending" and had to declare defunct criminal responsibility convicted of assaulting his wife for the prescription of the offense of assault.
Despite suffering from overworked judges of Section 20 of the hearing, the situation has nothing to do with what has been in previous years. At December 31, 2009, the number of cases pending for 2812 amounted to gender-based violence. Therefore, in a year has been a decline than a thousand issues to be resolved and that although in 2010 they entered or other 1,822 cases were reopened. The statistics are clear: last year, 2,625 were resolved.
INCREASE / The lawsuits came to this court started rising from 2006 (2.100 cases of violence against women and domestic) and the peak was reached in 2009, with about 3,400 records. Last year we began the descent. There are several reasons. One is the creation of Section 22, which has taken over a third of the sexist violence issues between couples. In addition, processes on domestic violence (eg assault of children to parents or grandparents) are distributed among the various courts of the hearing.
These measures have helped reduce congestion. But more importantly, according to the president of Section 20, Fernando Perez Maíquez, is the increased number of judges. In 2006 there were only four are now seven (two of them are of reinforcement). "It is necessary to maintain these reinforcements to expedite the process so we can reduce the number of pending cases," says the magistrate. This situation adds a certain decrease of demands for gender-based violence.
"We continue to make a big effort to take forward the work, which is excessive. We have always been well above the scale set by the General Council of Judicial Power, "says Perez Maíquez. The time taken to process a file has fallen. Incredibly, resolve issues in less than a year is considered a success, until recently, was virtually unthinkable. "We improved a little, but we have much work," admits the president of Section 20. "Now there is a reasonable delay and we are on track to break the deadlock. Pulling reinforcements and it is imperative we continue, "he adds.
SHORTAGE OF OFFICERS / Despite the improved numbers, staff shortages persist in the judicial office. The section on male violence has lost two acts, with the number of staff has dropped lately. Today, with four assistants, fourth and three police officers. "We are not sufficient to do all the work", says the chairman. Another two problems: excessive mobility of employees and the difficulty in processing court cases as delicate as those of gender-based violence. The court also makes the trials for serious crimes of violence against women, often dense and highly complex.
