The Ministry of Justice of the Government of the Canary Islands joins the consensus and announces that it will promote the unification of the judicial districts of Puerto de la Cruz and La Orotavaas stated by the judges of the area, the three municipalities of the Valley, the official associations of lawyers and attorneys, the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences and even a report from the Police Station of the National Police of the tourist city. The regional deputy councilor for Justice, the magistrate Carla Vallejounderlines the favorable position of the regional government to this proposal, which it qualifies as “an advance for organizational and technical reasons.”
The first step to confirm this unification is, according to Vallejo, “to urge the Ministry of Justice of the Government of Spain to modify the Law of Demarcation and Judicial Plant». Talking about deadlines is still complicated, but the deputy minister points out that “work will be done in parallel in several ways: the first thing is to create that legal coverage that allows this unification of judicial parties and the second is to move on to an ambitious and much-needed renewal process infrastructure, which will mean locating all the courts in the same space: a very important courthouse, with a minimum of eight courts and even the possibility of having exclusive courts for violence against women or courts of instance separate from those of instruction».
“We absolutely agree with the unification”, emphasizes the deputy minister, who admits that the merger by itself “would already produce clear benefits at an organizational level, since at present there are problems of competences due to the complexity generated by maintaining two judicial districts in such a small territory. This forces to cross processes between courts simply because an event occurs in one street or another, since that can mark the competence of one party or another. Only for that, at the organizational level, it would already be a very important advance».
“We absolutely agree with the unification of the judicial districts of La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz”
Deputy Minister of Justice It is clear that the creation of a new judicial headquarters “of importance and reference in the north of Tenerife” must be assumed as a logical consequence of this union, although at this time it is premature to talk about possible locations: «The first thing to do is a needs report to determine what spaces we need”, based on the existence of the eight current courts, “but also with a vocation for the future, since we want it to be a venue that will last over time and that is adapted to the reality of the new courts” .
“When we determine the spaces we need, it will be time to analyze what available land exists and which one is the most suitable,” Vallejo advances. What is not on the table at the moment is to include in this merger also the Judicial District of Icod de los Vinosas suggested by Illustrious Bar Association of Santa Cruz de Tenerife“because it is a much larger territorial area”.
Like the municipalities and the professionals involved in the administration of justice, the regional government understands that this unification would only bring advantages. Vallejo explains that “right now there are five mixed courts in La Orotava and three mixed courts in Cross port, also spread over four different locations. Unifying the two parties would require a minimum of eight courts. This would allow us to create courts of instance separate from the courts of instruction, in accordance with the regulations that are being projected, as well as a specific section on violence against women. We already know that, whenever possible, there is a commitment to creating these specialized courts because we know that it improves the service provided to victims and that investigations are carried out much more efficiently».
The objective of the Government of the Canary Islands is to ensure that this unification of both judicial parties occurs in this mandate. “We are going to work to make it so and we have this immense consensus that we trust will facilitate this necessary regulatory modification, which should not be complicated at all. And in the medium term we will have to talk about the location of that courthouse, “says Vallejo.
The consensus regarding the proposal is due, in his opinion, to the fact that “it is the most effective from the operational point of view and from the point of view of citizen service. What this atomization that exists right now produces is a more inefficient service that harms the work of the Security Forces and Bodies, of the judiciary, of the Prosecutor’s Office, of the organization of guard services… With the unification, everything improves and there is not even the slightest distance from justice for the citizenry since we are talking about the fact that both parties are separated currently for just seven kilometers away. At present, the eight courts of the judicial districts of Puerto de la Cruz and La Orotava They are divided into four venues, of which at least two are rental buildings that were not initially conceived as judicial headquarters.
