Madrid, 30 December 2025 - The greatest transformation of Justice since the 19th century enters into force on 1 January with the last phase of the Law of Efficiency. On that date, the former single-judge courts (3,800) shall turn into 431 Instance Courts, aimed at providing a public service that is more agile, modern and closer to citizens.
The reform was gradual: over 300 Instance Courts are already operating since July with no notable incidents. Now the remaining 100 will be implemented in major judicial districts such as Barcelona, Madrid, Zaragoza, Palma and Valladolid. Only the Judicial Offices of Oviedo, Gijón and Avilés will start up on 15 February, in order to complete some final technical adjustments.
A new structure to gain agility and efficiency
The law's reorganization modernizes the judicial system designed in the 19th century. Until now, each court had only a single judge and their technical team. Instance Courts, however, are collegial bodies made up of all the judges in the judicial district, organized into specialized sections (civil, criminal, violence against women, etc.), and they have a single Judicial Office for technical support. This structure helps optimize resources, improve workload distribution and increase flexibility to adapt to needs and avoid bottlenecks.
Another significant advance is the creation of the Justice Offices in the Municipality, which enable citizens to conduct various judicial transactions without having to travel to the location of the Instance Courts. From July to December, these offices processed over 114,000 transactions.
Funding and coordination
To implement this new model, the Ministry invested over 325 million euros from European Funds in the 12 autonomous communities with devolved powers for Justice, with estimated savings of close to 300 million euros over the next 10 years. Implementation of the model required joint coordination and planning, for which the technical group of the Ministry and the Autonomous Communities held 27 follow-up meetings and seven Sectoral Committee ones during the year.
Also, an extensive training plan on the new regulation was carried out, with over 280 briefing sessions, 305 digitization courses with more than 15,000 participants, and a Conference for Directors of Shared Services, with nearly 300 attendees.
This reform, the fruit of years of work at the Ministry, has been possible thanks to the commitment of the Autonomous Communities, judges, magistrates, Justice Administration lawyers and public officials.
Efficacy proven at the Instance Courts
The Courts which began operations in July, have expedited their proceedings as proven by data. Pending communications (notifications, injunctions, etc.) have been reduced by 36% on average in seven Autonomous Communities, with 43% in Andalucía and 34% in the Comunitat Valenciana. Judgment enforcement has improved 30% on average, reaching 69% in Andalucía, 55% in Castilla-La Mancha, and 27% in Catalonia and the Comunitat Valenciana. (Data from the Instance Courts operating since 1 July provided by the Court Clerks of the Superior Courts of Justice).
Moreover, the Law also helps reduce litigation as it requires resorting to the Appropriate Means for Dispute Resolution (MASC) for civil and business matters before initiating any judicial procedure. Thus, in the third quarter of the year, new civil litigations dropped by 30.9% across Spain.
