Barcelona courts cut scheduling time for immediate minor-offense trials to 10 days

Barcelona has reduced the time needed to schedule immediate minor-offense trials to about 10 days after the alleged incident, according to the Catalan Department of Justice and Democratic Quality.

The department attributed the improvement to coordinated work by courts, judicial offices, police forces and the administrations involved. Measures adopted in recent months focused on strengthening the response to repeat offending and reducing delays in minor-offense cases.

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The evolution is the result of coordinated work between the judicial bodies, the judicial office, the police forces and the administrations involved, as well as the measures adopted in recent months to strengthen the response to repeat offending and reduce delays in the judicial sphere in relation to minor offenses.

Authorities said an agreement by the High Court of Catalonia allowed the courts to use available spaces more efficiently for new hearings. The reorganization, combined with a decline in the number of recorded offenses in recent months, brought judicial response times well below previous levels, the department said.

A joint action plan by the Generalitat, the Spanish government and Barcelona City Council opened four reinforcement criminal courts for rapid trials and a third court for immediate minor-offense cases. The latter’s schedule has now been provisionally closed because of the improvement. The waiting period for immediate minor-offense trials fell from 8.8 months to 2.2 months, while reinforced criminal courts reduced delays for rapid trials linked to repeat offending to roughly 10 days.

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Has made it possible to achieve much shorter judicial response times.