Reform of the Judiciary Act: nullity of proceedings and judges in political office

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. An exceptional motion is created to request the nullity of proceedings based on formal defects that caused a lack of defense, when they could not be raised earlier and the ruling is final. The deadline to request it is twenty days and, at most, five years from notification.
2. The list of public offices that place Judges and Magistrates on special services status is reduced. It is no longer triggered by government posts, Secretaries of State, or seats in the Congress of Deputies or Senate.
3. Judges and Magistrates elected to representative office or holding political or trusted positions must spend three years of forced leave before returning to judicial service, unless they obtain a post without judicial functions.
4. A new ground for a judge to step aside or be challenged is added: having held public office through which the judge could have formed views on the case, the parties, or their representatives, to the detriment of impartiality.
5. A special statute is set for Supreme Court Magistrates: they keep that category only if they perform functions at the Court, and their pay will be similar to that of other high constitutional bodies.
6. A category promotion system is established for Judicial Secretaries, along with the possibility of temporarily filling vacant secretary positions left unfilled in transfers or unoccupied by their holder.

Who it affects

• Judges and Magistrates: Their administrative statuses and the rules for holding public office or returning to the judiciary change.
• People who go to court: They have an exceptional motion to request the nullity of proceedings for defects that left them defenseless.
• Supreme Court Magistrates: They have a special statute, with their own rules on category and pay.
• Judicial Secretaries: They get a category promotion system and rules for temporarily filling vacant secretary positions.
• Parties to concluded cases: Cases ended by a final ruling in the month before the law can also use the nullity motion.

Words worth knowing

Nulidad de actuaciones

Nullity of proceedings: a declaration that steps in a case are invalid due to a serious flaw, so they must be repeated.

Indefensión

Lack of defense: when a party was not allowed to defend itself properly.

Sentencia firme

Final judgment: a court ruling that can no longer be appealed.

Excedencia forzosa

Forced leave: a status in which a judge is compulsorily outside active service, with their position reserved.

Abstención y recusación

Recusal: mechanisms to remove a judge from a case when their impartiality may be in doubt.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries