91 new judicial positions to be created in Catalonia during 2026

The Spanish government will create 91 new judicial positions in Catalonia in 2026, of a total of 500 nationwide. Of these, 73 will be assigned to courts of first instance, 17 to provincial courts of appeal, and one to the Catalan High Court.

With this expansion, the staff in Catalonia will increase by 10.5%. 

In a statement, the Catalan government’s justice ministry said that this represents the largest single-year expansion of the judicial corps in history. They argued that it is possible thanks to the Public Justice Service Efficiency Law, which allows new judicial positions to be created without establishing full courts.

The new model allows a new judicial position to be created for about €100,000, compared to the €500,000 it costs to create a traditional court. The creation of 500 judicial units planned for 2026 will cost €55.7 million, whereas under the previous system it would have cost €260 million.

In total across Spain, the current judicial corps, which has 5,876 positions, will grow by 8.5% in just one year.

The government emphasized that the distribution of the new positions was based on objective criteria, such as case volume and population in each autonomous community.

It also took into account workload reports from Spain's top judicial authority, the General Council of the Judiciary, as well as proposals from autonomous communities and the Superior Courts of Justice.