She’s done it: Portugal’s Justice Minister Frances Van Dunem has decided that 20 courts, closed by her often 'tired and emotional' predecessor Paula Teixeira da Cruz, are to be staffed and reopened early next year with a further 27 formerly downgraded courts reopened for smaller cases.
The minister said she was in talks with the ministry of finance over staffing levels but a January 2017 start date is the target with an additional budget of €500,000 a year.
The 27 former courts that were reduced to local help centres will be upgraded to again be able to hear smaller case where the maximum penalty would be less than 5 years prison.
Francisca Van Dunem said the adjustments to the judicial map, presented today to the Committee of Constitutional Affairs, have yet to be transformed into a bill for approval by the Council of Ministers is determined that in January next year the justice system will get the boost it needs to start making inroads into Portugal’s appalling backlog of 4 million cases.
In fact, van Dunem wanted to get the old courts opened this September but, ironically, there are several ‘legal formalities’ to go through, so January 2017 is the target date for the re-opening of courts most of which focus on family and criminal cases.
Francisca Van Dunem admitted also that the judicial system was 1,200 court staff short, but that the ‘reasonable’ number missing was 600 to enable the service to cope with a judicial system that produces 23 million judicial notifications a year. Interim help may be provided by Finanças staff seconded to the court system.
In addition to reallocating staff to work in these reactivated courts, the Ministry of Justice says it is working on ‘technological solutions and rationalisation’ to free staff from routine tasks, something the public had hoped was achieved long ago after Teixeira de Cruz's introduction of the ruinously expensive Citius management system which crashed on take-off and seems to have caused more harm than good.
Portugal’s justice system currently is close to paralysis with cases taking years before being listed for first hearings. Many citizens are deterred from starting a court case as they might not live to see the conclusion.
One law firm in Loulé advises clients that “to use the court system in Portugal, you need to be under 30 and in good health.”
If van Dunem can get the resources to reopen the mothballed courts, including the one in Monchique, her plans should not stop there as many are praying the she also can reinvigorate the overburdened staff and make sure systems are working as they should. Only then can the public get the justice system for which it is paying.
