The actions of the duty shift and assistance to detainees (TOAD) have once again reached their all-time highs in Catalonia and in 2022 they grew by 6% compared to 2021, with a total of 339,384 actions, which means full recovery from the pandemic. The lawyers charged an average of 177 euros for each performance. These figures come at a time when the Consell de l’Advocacia Catalana warns of the urgency for the Department of Justice to improve the financing of the ex officio shift system and the need to respond to future challenges such as care protocols to children and adolescents victims of violence and attention to women inmates in penitentiary centers victims of sexist violence. Yesterday, the lawyers from the Mataró judicial district took their protests to the judicial headquarters.
There are currently 6,393 lawyers from the 14 Catalan associations attached to the ex officio shift, 26.56% of the total number of practicing lawyers in Catalonia. Of these, close to half, 3,034 do so through the Barcelona Bar Association. Official lawyers have an average age between 42 and 55 years and have been practicing for 15 years. 20% of lawyers are enrolled in the program to promote Catalan in justice. In total, 10,726 actions in Catalan were justified, approximately 3% of the total, although they were 3,242 more than a year earlier. The Department of Justice has allocated 225,000 euros in 2022 to this program.
Among the four main specialties, criminal law is the most common, with 4,436 affiliated lawyers, followed by care for victims of sexist violence, with 2,948, juvenile law, with 2,331, and immigration law, with 1,663. In fact, actions for criminal law were the most common with 140,000 followed by assistance to detainees with 97,488. Those of civil law accounted for 36,000 actions and those of violence against women, 21,000. The Barcelona school alone provided close to 50,000 assistance to detainees.
The assistance of ex officio lawyers to victims of sexist violence in police stations already accounted for 72% of the victims from July to November 2022, a percentage that is increasing progressively. The TOAD assistance throughout 2022 has meant the payment of 60.1 million euros in remuneration to the lawyers who have provided the services, which means an average cost that does not reach 177 euros for each action. In addition, 3.3 million have been used for the management of the job shift itself, which brings the total to 63.5 million euros, above the 59.1 in 2021. Citizens have scored 8.7 for the services received from TOAD, one point more than a year earlier.
The Consell de l’Advocacia Catalana and the Department of Justice have a calendar of negotiations open until the end of July to resolve the claims made by the legal profession for the improvement of the conditions in which the service is provided ex officio. Among them is the update of the remuneration system with the recovery of the CPI between 2010 and 2023 or the improvement of the situation of the guards to provide assistance to detainees or victims, among others.
The president of the Consell de l’Advocacia Catalana and dean of the Reus college, Encarna Orduna, defends that “the importance of the legal service and the free justice system must be valued by the administration, incorporating salary improvements for the professionals who provide this service”. Orduna has stated that there is “good harmony and a good predisposition” in the conversations with the Department and that the Consell “will continue working to ensure that in the next budgets of the Generalitat a decent staff is established that allows to attend the service of the turn of office in a sufficient and reasonable manner”.
Regarding other immediate challenges linked to the office shift and that will have to be promoted in the short term, are the care protocols for child and adolescent victims of violence, based on the Barnahus pilot program launched by the Government, and the attention to female inmates in prisons who are victims of sexist violence. “Facing these challenges is also strategic for the legal profession and for having a modern, efficient free justice system adapted to the needs of today’s society”, said Encarna Orduna.
The Parliament has urged the Government to “attend” the demands of the public defenders to achieve “a service of the highest quality”, especially “regarding an effective change in the collaboration agreement between the Department of Justice and the Col·legi d ‘Advocats of Catalonia’. “It is necessary to review and improve the labor and remuneration situation of the lawyers of Catalonia in the Office Turn,” states a motion promoted by the PSC that has obtained the support of the plenary this Thursday. On the other hand, the chamber has also asked the Government to start “studies to internalize the personnel of alternative penal measures and the accompaniment service for the victim of the crime in court.”
