Some 1,500 lawyers are affected by defaults, and announce protests on the 12th at the door of the Government Delegation
The lawyers of the duty of the three bar associations of the Region -Murcia, Cartagena and Lorca- denounce delays in the payment of their fees by the Ministry of Justice. Specifically, they are owed 80% of the month of March – the 20% paid corresponds to advances for assistance in gender-based violence – and the months of April, May and June. Maravillas Hernández, deputy dean of the Murcia Bar Association, also adds that the delays imply non-payment of services already provided. «Of the part of the month of March that remains to be paid, almost 300,000 euros are owed to the lawyers of the duty shift. But there is also the entire month of April, May and June to pay », she laments.
For this reason, those affected announce that on July 12, the Day of Free Justice and Official Shift, they will gather at the door of the Government Delegation to claim overdue payments. “Free justice for those most in need, yes; but not at the expense of our salary, ”says the lawyers.
Those affected point out that the reason for the problem is the new computer program for the administration of Free Justice called ‘Pericles’. This system, installed last January, contains some parameters that modify the justification criteria for the payment of fees that the Ministry of Justice previously had.
According to those affected, the problem lies in the new Free Justice computer program called ‘Pericles’
Now the program requires lawyers to enter data that some of them “have no legal protection, and others represent an unforeseen change of criteria with respect to what was required before,” explains the deputy dean of the Murcia Bar Association. This causes difficulties when processing the information in the system and, therefore, the payment of fees.
Miguel Sánchez, from Ciudadanos, criticizes in the Senate “the systematic delay in payments”
The problem affects about 1,500 lawyers in the region and a total of 20,000 in the territories dependent on the Ministry. “There are 24 affected bar associations throughout Spain, in those communities that have not transferred the powers of Justice, as is the case of the Region,” says Hernández. The echoes of the protests of the affected lawyers reached the Senate last week. Last Tuesday, the spokesman for Citizens in the Upper House, the Murcian Miguel Sánchez, presented a parliamentary initiative to denounce the “systematic delay in payments” suffered by lawyers on the duty.
“A recurring episode”
“It is a recurring episode that every so often occurs again in some professionals who have a vitally important job in defending citizens with limited resources,” said Sánchez.
The senator asked the Government “when do they plan to pay the legal aid lawyers the amounts corresponding to the month of March” and if these “regrettable delays” are going to continue “occurring in the future.” “Dignify the work of the professionals who are in charge of the right of defense, a fundamental pillar of the rule of law,” requested Senator Sánchez.
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