Due to lack of resources, the CDMX Judiciary begins to transform civil and family courts

MEXICO CITY (PROCESS) – In the context of discussions on judicial reform, which aims to have all judges in the country elected by universal suffrage, the Mexico City Judicial Department (PJCDMX) has begun implementing the National Code of Civil and Family Procedure, but has failed to achieve the budget increase requested last year by Presiding Judge Rafael Guerra Álvarez.

On June 12, the Mexico City Judicial Council issued General Agreement No. 44-17/2024, authorizing the annulment of written proceedings in 24 civil courts and 11 family courts between June 17 and November 29 of next year.

Thus begins the first phase of implementation of the aforementioned Code, which provides that, no later than 2027, all civil or family courts throughout the country will operate under an oral justice scheme, just as the criminal justice system is charged.

The above means that from June 17, the general civil, small claims, oral, family and divisional sections of the capital’s high court stopped sending new cases to the 24 civil courts and 11 family courts that are about to be terminated.

A notice issued by the local Judicial Committee determined that a judicial closure will be implemented from November 11 to 25, and pending matters will be returned to the court to continue to be heard in written procedures.

According to information released by the PJCDMX through its website, in 2023 alone, the Family Courts of Written Procedure (of which there are currently 42) received 61,244 new cases (about 1,458 per court) and in the same year closed 38 1,030 cases (about 905 per court), while from January to April 30 of this year they received a total of 20,812 cases (about 495 per court) and closed 12,390 cases (295 per court).

The civil courts, which currently number 74, received 85,055 new cases in 2023 (equivalent to 1,149 files per court), closed 69,153 cases that year (about 947 cases per court), and from January to April 2024, received 29,077 new cases (about 392 cases per court), and closed 21,957 lawsuits during the same period (296 cases per court).

Written procedure civil and family matters have the highest percentage of cases filed annually throughout the PJCDMX, at 34.3% and 28%, respectively.

According to information consulted by Proceso at the CDMX High Court (TSJCDMX), the court that will be abolished will in fact become the new oral court.

The goal is that in about a year and a half, the new guidelines will be fully implemented in CDMX so that there will be 14 administrative units responsible for civil matters and 7 administrative units responsible for family matters, with 6 justice providers in each administrative unit. In other words, 126 judges will be assigned to the above administrative units.

To this end, last June, the presiding judge of the TSJCDMX requested the Federal House of Representatives to reform the transitional provisions of the National Civil and Family Procedure Code in order to authorize sufficient federal and local resources to implement its provisions, which apply to all courts nationwide.

In December of that year, Guerra Álvarez calculated before Congress in the capital that CDMX alone needed 1.647 billion pesos in investment, so he asked lawmakers to support a 10,000-peso increase in the court’s budget for the year.

In total, Guerra Álvarez asked the capital’s Congress to allocate a budget of 16,527,251,697.95 million pesos to the TSJCDMX until 2024. However, despite the constant prayers of the presiding judge, the Mexico City Congress approved only a budget of 600,814,600,000 pesos for the court this year.

As the implementation of the first phase has already begun, judicial sources confirmed to this publication that Guerra Álvarez will present this September a new calculation of the budget increase necessary for the TSJCDMX to continue the conversion plan for the Civil and Family Courts, which was given to members verbally.

As of February last year, 45 magistrates, 173 judges and nearly 1,518 civil and family justice career servants had received oral and written training on the implementation of the Code.

Personnel mobility

According to information released by the local judicial department itself, it is expected that more than 4,000 judicial personnel will be trained from the beginning of the first phase of implementation.

This means that currently not all civil and family court staff at TSJCDMX have received civil and family oral justice training.

Judicial sources consulted by Proceso explained that staff who have not received such training will be assigned to courts that will receive new cases and to courts that are waiting for written proceedings to be processed, which will be converted into oral courts.

According to public information from the PJCDMX, as of 2022, there are 10,529 staff members in the capital’s courts, of which only 31.8% have judicial careers and have received oral training.

The majority of the TSJCDMX staff (4,182) are professional administrative staff who, besides being the lowest paid in the entire institution, do not need oral training, since they are not part of the judicial profession and, for the positions they hold, do not require a degree beyond high school, so they are the group most likely to be reassigned as court auxiliary staff, who will receive more jobs due to extermination. Presiding Judge Rafael Guerra Álvarez announced the status of 24 civilians and 11 family members.