Improvement of the Economic Compensations for Lawyers of the Office Shift in Catalonia

The Catalan Bar Council calls for immediate improvement

The Council of the Catalan Bar has requested the Department of Justice to immediately improve the financial compensation for lawyers who perform the duty shift service. According to the president of the Council, Marta Martínez, the current compensations are at levels corresponding to the year 2010, and this does not reflect the reality of current costs and the work of these professionals.

Petition based on an economic study

The Council’s request is based on an economic study that has quantified the need to add more than 21.5 million euros to end the deficit financing of these professionals. This demonstrates the urgency of an improvement in compensation to ensure fair remuneration for their work (https://www.softcatala.org/resum-de-textos-en-catala/).

Claims to Justice and the situation of professionals

Marta Martínez has denounced that the lawyers on duty are being paid with figures from 14 years ago, and the lack of political agreement on this year’s budgets is exacerbating the situation. This has caused the difficulties with which these professionals work to be encased. The Council has demanded from Justice the application of article 39 of the Public Finances Law to expand the item allocated to these improvements in compensation, emphasizing that there are mechanisms and formulas that only depend on the political will to achieve this.

More professionals and resources for Catalan

The Consell de l’Advocacia Catalana has detailed that with the additional funds, adjustments could also be made to recognize availability in certain on-call shifts, establish new modules, increase the number of on-call lawyers in some shifts and territories, or improve the current social procedure module. In addition, Justice has been asked to take measures to guarantee a sufficient budget item for the program to promote the use of Catalan in the official shift, since the actions carried out last year exceeded the budget forecasts ( https://www.softcatala.org/resum-de-textos-en-catala/).