Legal tip 1000. Spanish Courts under auditing

Anne said:
Thursday, August 1, 2013 @ 10:48 AM

For what its worth, IMHO, have the new commission considered consulting with the World Justice Project team to identify where best practice exists in this regard as they reinforce their inspections and audits on courts?
They could then gradually consider replicating best practice and learn from past experience rather than re-invent the wheel, so to speak.
Who knows, from this a European standardised approach that incorporates best practice in auditing/regulating and monitoring of courts could be developed, with Spain at the heart of reform!
Might this incorporate accurate records to ensure the following statistics are recorded in an effort to improve and effectively monitor the service:-
Incoming cases
Length of proceedings (timeframes) for lawsuit admittance/1st instance ruling/preliminary enforcement/ appeals/enforcement of rulings/return of costs and interest/supreme court etc
Pending cases and backlogs
Monitor judicial quality/consistency of rulings (linked to Supreme court appeals?).
A major problem at present is that time constraints in Spain appear to be totally one sided. Keith Rule has observed “The parties are subject to time restrictions and deadlines every step of the way. The Courts, Judges and Magistrates are under no such deadlines, time limits or restrictions. “
Without a balance of reasonable time restrictions built into the court system there will always be the risk of excessive delays that have the potential to be abused and compromise consumer rights.
A comprehensive detailed monitoring system would have the potential to swiftly identify areas of major concern and allow resources to be prioritorised/reallocated where necessary (e.g. Estepona, the court with the worst backlog of cases!).
Likewise there appears the need to monitor and revise the complaints procedure and include here a review of relevant European Petition data.
Also it would be interesting to identify if monies from increased taxes associated with for instance appeals, are being ring fenced to ensure they are ploughed back to improve and modernise the court system.
Just a few suggestions Maria!
But as with everything it requires the financial resources and commitment to tackle this.
So perhaps the question to ask here is, do the commission have the commitment from Government to provide the financial resources to back up their findings and implement the necessary reform of the court system?
Without this financial commitment sadly it would prove a cosmetic exercise.

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