Workload Pushes Alicante Courts to Their Limits: Cases and Procedures Increase by 13% Annually

Workload is pushing courts and tribunals in the province of Alicante to their limits. The reality of 2024 shows that judicial offices faced another 12.9% increase in new cases and procedures. Specifically, they handled 294,867 cases, of which 91% (268,943) were resolved, according to the Judicial Authority.

Despite this, the completion rate of these files also increased compared to 2023, with 11.7% more cases and procedures closed last year. Thus, the cases recorded in the courts and tribunals of the province of Alicante represent 30% of the total in the Valencian Community, which saw 831,849 new cases - of which 760,639 were resolved - an increase of 10.2% compared to those initiated in 2023.

Between January and December of last year, the judicial bodies of the Valencian Community issued a total of 188,351 sentences, 14.2% more than the previous year, issued 381,764 orders, 5.7% more, and 180,024 decrees.

The increase in new cases occurred in all jurisdictional orders, except for Administrative Litigation, which slightly decreased. This is revealed by the data on the activity of the judicial bodies contained in the situation report prepared by the Statistics Service of the General Council of the Judiciary.

At the regional level, the Civil jurisdiction bodies registered 387,098 cases, equivalent to a 15.3% increase compared to the 335,738 of the previous year. In this jurisdiction, 335,447 cases were resolved, 8.7% more than the previous year, and 266,668 remained pending, 25.2% more.

Additionally, the entry of 53,841 new procedures in the Social jurisdiction of the Valencian Community represented a 17.7% increase compared to the previous year. The number of resolved cases stood at 41,960, 15.8% more than in 2023, and the number of pending cases at the end of the year, 53,820, marked an annual increase of 27.1%.

In the Administrative Litigation order, the entry of 14,805 new cases represented an annual decrease of only 0.4%. The number of resolved cases also decreased by 5.9%, totalling 16,029. At the end of the year, 11,573 cases remained pending, 9.2% less than on December 31, 2023.

The litigation rate in Spain as a whole in 2024 was 160.41 cases per 1,000 inhabitants, while that of the Valencian Community is lower, at 156.3. Above the national average were the Canary Islands (212.51), Madrid (178.39), Asturias (165.37), Andalusia (163), Murcia (162.29), and the Balearic Islands (162.12).