After 37 years of service, Begoña Gutiérrez has discharged from the ex officio shift. In November 65 and hangs the toga: «I stay with the people I have attended thanks to this work.» The turn, the system that guarantees defense to whom it cannot pay it, suffers a constant bleeding: in five years it has lost 12% lawyers, from 45,868 in 2019 to 39,941 in 2024. There are less and fewer hands for more work. The last year, the lawsuit grew by 5.3%, exceeding one million applications (1,135,291), according to the XIX Free Justice Observatory Report, prepared by the General Council of the Spanish Advocacy (CGAE) and Aranzadi the Law. The generational relief is in danger. The youngest lawyers, says Juan Manuel Mayllo, responsible for the ex officio shift at the College of the Law of Madrid (ICAM), do not cover the retirement casualties of the Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964). A constant dripping that, in 2024, reduced the census 3%. «More than half of the lawyers who provide this service in school are over 50 and young people do not register for conditions and ignorance,» he says. And he adds: “15 minutes in the dungeons of Plaza de Castilla teach more than a year of master's degree.” If in 2019 they represented 31% of the total fiscal lawyers, today they barely reach 26.8%. In the cities the service is guaranteed, but «there are small judicial matches in which colleagues from other areas have had to resort,» says Africa Calleja, president of Altodo (association of lawyers and lawyers by a decent ex officio shift). Although they provide a public service, what they perceive is not a salary, but a “compensation” set by the responsible administration. «Baisos ridiculous» that have not updated for years, denounces the law. In addition to poorly paid, the turn drags injustices: the remuneration varies according to the territory in which the service is provided. «It is an incomprehensible and unacceptable comparative grievance,» denounces the president of the CGAE, Salvador González. The contrast is eloquent. In 2024, the average bill of a criminal issue in the Basque Country amounted to 324 euros while in Andalusia it did not reach 139. “In Madrid we charged 428 euros gross for civil matter, demand and trial included,” says María Carqués. The lawyer joined the turn in November 2024, when opening her own firm after 12 years in an office. «No one points for money, this is pure vocation,» he says. Believe in the rule of law: «So I can help who cannot pay my fees.» A few months ago, he managed to stop, together with social services, the eviction of a woman with psychiatric problems that ignored the letters of the court and already had a date to stay in the street. For the majority, the turn is a professional complement. «The partner who lives only from the Malvive Ex officio shift,» says Teresa Alemán, Tenerife lawyer assigned to the so -called Pateras shift, officially called «foreigners and vessels.» The focus, laments, catches after each tragedy. Lawyers who attend migrants claim interpreters to defend them with total guarantee. “I have already done three Wolof courses myself [lengua mayoritaria en Senegal] To be able to tell you Hello, ”he says.
Immigrant Defense
«Our work is very ungrateful,» he confesses German. «The Red Cross identifies with a golden bracelet to the vulnerable ones; you see them pass and you cannot ask them if they flee from a forced marriage to be able to process an asylum,» he says. The lawyer denounces that they are not assigning ex officio attorneys to resort to expulsions: «The Foreigners Law demands it and it is impossible for the migrant to make us a power.» Even so, satisfactions weigh more. «I recently met a woman I attended that Spanish already speaks and has found work,» he says. The arrival of Pateras marks the uniqueness of the shift in Tenerife, which supplies literades to El Hierro and La Gomera. On the island, the turn has grown, says the dean of the Bar Association, José Manuel Niederleytner. Of the 2,700 professionals, 900 – 33% – are attached. Of them, 250 are in the warehouse shift. To be able to sign up, he explains, «we must meet all the usual requirements and, in addition, a specific training.» The lawyers charge a total of 414 euros per six people – about 69 euros per immigrant – although, «sometimes, to avoid displacements, they serve up to 12». The lawyers denounce the cost hole that, directly, are not paid: displacements, resources, copies … neither in all territories the friendly efforts prior to the demand are paid, despite being mandatory in the civil sphere. Africa Calleja emphasizes that in 20 years some scales have lost «more than 50% purchasing power» and puts the finger in the problem of non -payment when free justice is denied. «The ex officio lawyer is not to replace the obligations of the administrations. This is not charity,» says Salvador González, who denounces the «institutional abuse.» The law launches a SOS and claims that the new free legal assistance law that will replace that of 1996 – even if defined, although the Ministry plans to approve it before the end of the year – enshrines basic guarantees: decent remuneration, regularly and punctual revisables. «We have a young talent committed; that look never goes out,» says González.
The fight for pensions
«The lawyers have aroused,» says Ana Gil, spokesman for the J2 movement, which demands decent retirements for those who quoted in mutuality, alternative social security system. With ridiculous pensions, some between 300 and 400 euros, demand a «catwalk» to the self -employed challenge. The law is already underway after joint mobilizations with other associations and groups. «The next step in the fight is the ex officio turn,» says Gil. Although the Ministry has rejected the right to strike, the Venia union maintains one since 2023 that has resulted in archived disciplinary sanctions.
