A study prepared by the Francisco de Vitoria Judicial Association (AJFV) has revealed the significant growth in early retirements or voluntary withdrawals from the judicial career in recent years. The report highlights that voluntary or early retirements represented 47.47% of retirements registered in 2023, compared to 31.4% in 2022, which means that in a single year they increased by just over 15 points. “Every four days a judge retires in Spain,” explains Sergio Oliva, AJFV spokesperson and author of the study. Oliva denounces the “alarming problem” that the Administration of Justice faces with “an escalation of retirements never seen before”, to the point that by the year 2031 33% of the judicial career will have retired, according to the projections of this association of judges.
The report refers to the lack of career incentives as one of the causes of early departures. It is worth remembering that the current prohibition of appointments by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) has prevented internal promotions for access to the most relevant positions, such as those of the Supreme Court and the presidencies of Courts or Superior Courts of Justice of the autonomous communities. The AFV has already shown its concern about the situation with different initiatives, among them the appeal that managed to get the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to recognize the right of the candidates to access the Council of the Judiciary itself so that the procedure could be followed. parliamentary planned for this purpose. The appeal was presented by six AFV judges, obviously aware that the renewal of the Council is the necessary step to unblock the appointments, especially after the Constitutional Court has endorsed in two rulings the legal reform that prohibited a Power from making them. Judicial with expired mandate.
The association's study on voluntary departures from the profession explains that in 2023 a total of 99 retirements took place in the judicial career. Of them, 47 were voluntary or anticipated, 44 were forced due to age and 8 were due to permanent disability. Voluntary or early retirements represent 47.47% of retirements in 2023, compared to 31.4% in 2022. That is, in a single year they have increased by more than 15 points.
Oliva affirms that the study he has carried out reveals that there are three fundamental causes of the progress of the judicial career by those who abandon it early. It is about the aging of the judicial career, the growing overload of work “which is causing occupational health problems” among judges, to which is added the absence of a well-defined professional career, where experience and competence are recognized. continue serving as a judge. The spokesman for the Francisco de Vitoria Association considers that these three causes of sick leave and early retirement “are intertwined and feed each other.”
Regarding work overload, the study provides the following data. Firstly, in Spain there are only 11.26 judges per 100,000 inhabitants, when the European average is 17.6. The litigation rate, on the other hand, is growing steadily. This rate, which measures the cases filed per 1,000 inhabitants, stands at the end of 2023 between 143.8% and 147.5%, when in 2018 it was 128.3%. This represents an increase of between 15 and 19 percentage points compared to just five years ago.
The study also mentions that according to calculations by the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), to improve the benefits of the public service of the administration of justice, the incorporation of nearly 6,500 new judges would be required over the next decade. . Addressing this circumstance would imply calling for between 310 and 320 positions annually in the judicial career until 2032. The spokesperson for the Francisco de Vitoria Association emphasizes that, despite these forecasts, the last call made—the one corresponding to last month of November—has been only 120 places, “which are,” says Sergio Oliva, “manifestly insufficient.”
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Oliva emphasizes in light of the data revealed by the report that “the effective judicial protection of citizens is at risk.” In his opinion, the measures taken “will determine the integrity of our judicial system,” given that “only with professional justice and without health problems caused by overwork will true judicial independence be maintained.”
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