The Ministry of Justice, Local Administration, and Civil Service will allocate 255,000 euros this year to ensure that victims of gender-based violence have a procurator to represent them throughout all stages of the judicial process, even though it is not mandatory, to avoid multiple court appearances and allow them to focus on their recovery. The call for these grants that the Junta grants to the professional procurator colleges has been published in BOJA, and the deadline to apply is until June 30th.
Victims of gender-based violence have the right to free legal assistance from lawyers and procurators, but representation by the latter is not mandatory in all phases of the judicial process. However, to reduce the double victimization that comes with these women having to go to court for various procedures, the Ministry of Justice signed an agreement with the Andalusian Council of Procurator Colleges to fund these professionals to represent them throughout the process.
To compensate the work of procurators, the Junta started granting exceptional grants in 2021 to the Procurator Colleges, although to provide stability to this measure and expedite the fund processing, an order of regulatory bases was approved last year to grant aid on a non-competitive basis. Thus, they are called every year and the Ministry allocates the funds to the Andalusian Council, which distributes them among the provincial colleges who, in turn, distribute them among their members.
In this way, in 2024, the Almería Procurator College received 19,481 euros, Cádiz 18,788 euros, Jerez de la Frontera 14,245 euros, Córdoba 7,248 euros, Granada 27,720, Huelva 12,782, Jaén procurators a total of 14,938 euros, Málaga 58,520, Antequera College 2,233 euros, and Sevilla 68,992.
The Minister of Justice, Local Administration, and Civil Service, José Antonio Nieto, highlighted the work of procurators and urged judges and prosecutors specializing in gender-based violence to inform victims of gender-based violence about the possibility of requesting this service for free from the moment of the report, «as many are unaware of this option, and it will provide them with peace of mind and security, as they won’t have to worry about procedures and deadlines.»
In this sense, Nieto emphasized that «for victims of gender-based violence, just having to go to court generates tension, they fear encountering their aggressor, and it reminds them over and over again of what they’ve been through.»
Therefore, the Ministry of Justice also aims to create separate and comfortable waiting rooms for victims of these types of crimes in judicial buildings, which prevent any contact, even visual, with the aggressor when they come to testify. Since 2018, the number of Gesell Rooms equipped for the practice of pre-constituted evidence, where their testimony is recorded with all procedural guarantees, to avoid having to repeat it several times and before different legal operators during the process, has been increasing.