[ad_1]
As a consequence of the health emergency affecting the country, more than 80% of court hearings have been suspended this year. That is why the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, presented this Tuesday, a legal initiative that includes modifications in the field of criminal, labor, family and civil justice.
They report that the bill entered into Congress has three main guidelines. First, it seeks to make the justice system more efficient, anticipating the work overload as a consequence of the decrease in income and suspension of hearings during the constitutional exception period.
Secondly, promote remote audiences, limiting the physical presence of people in the courts of justice for health reasons and, finally, permanently incorporates the mechanisms and institutions that have produced results during the operation of the courts in the period of constitutional exception, or that emerge as highly recommended from him.
Minister Larraín added that “the health crisis has not only hit the economy and employment, it has also hit judicial activity hard, which if it returns tomorrow in a normal way it will completely collapse. For this reason, it was considered that the hearings in labor matters have decreased by 70%, those of family, by 80%; those in the penal area, on average 66% ”.
Action Plan for return
During the month of June, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights announced a Action Plan to face the reestablishment of judicial activity, after the State of Catastrophe has ended.
For these purposes, he convened working groups in all areas of the judicial system. These proposals were complemented with contributions from academics, as well as civil society organizations and trade unions of lawyers, officials and mediators linked to the justice sector.
In relation to this previous work and the reestablishment of the activity, the Secretary of State affirmed that “their return can only be gradual, to avoid a jamming, which will
prevent access to justice ”.
“We want to ensure the efficiency of the judicial action, and we also want during the time that the transition lasts until full health normality, that there are no direct contacts to avoid infections. All these processes are made possible thanks to this initiative, which is the product of the work of many, with broad participation, to allow judicial activity to return to normal in the near future, ”he added.
The diagnosis of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
Based on the information collected by the Ministry of Justice, it was possible to appreciate that in criminal matters – although the income to the guarantee courts remained practically unchanged since the beginning of the health crisis – when reviewing the hearings held before them, as well as before the Oral Criminal Trial Courts, a drastic reduction of 68% and 65% respectively, in relation to the historical average is evidenced.
The reason for not holding the hearings corresponded in more than 80% of the cases, to reasons related to the health emergency, that is, for the purposes of the measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, both at the national level and within the Judiciary.
On the other hand, they assure that in the family judiciary, there is a considerable drop in income since the beginning of the pandemic, decreasing by up to 52% compared to the average of previous years.
They add that in matter labor and civil, income figures have remained relatively stable, however, both in these matters and also in the family there has been a considerable decrease in the number of hearings.
Indeed, in labor matters, audiences have decreased by 70% and in family matters by 80%, compared to the average for 2018. The paralysis of processes can also be observed in civil matters in the number of cases terminated by final judgment, which has been reduced to 45% of what normally occurred in an average month of 2019.
[ad_2]
