The draft organic law on measures for the efficiency of the public justice service and squatting

The Draft Organic Law on Measures for the Efficiency of the Public Justice Service contemplates a series of procedural amendments with the aim of speeding up the processing of judicial procedures in different jurisdictional orders.

In the matter that concerns us, the Criminal Procedure Act is modified to include breaking and entering and usurpation of property in the list of offences for rapid prosecution, which are included in Title III, Chapter I, Article 795 of the Criminal Procedure Act. The aim is for the perpetrators of these criminal acts to be tried within the time limits established for fast-track offences, where the oral trial will be scheduled to take place as soon as possible and, in any case, within the following fifteen days.

The draft law only affects those occupations that are the consequence of an action that can be classified as a criminal offence, that is to say, that the action of the squatters falls under the type of the crime of usurpation, or breaking and entering. Failure to pay the rent cannot be judged through criminal proceedings; this action, which derives from a breach of contract, must continue to be resolved through civil proceedings.

The Law on the Efficiency of the Public Justice Service passed the debate in the plenary session of the Spanish Congress of Deputies on 14 November of this year. As a result, the bill has now been sent to the Senate for final approval. There, the Upper House will be able to approve the text in its terms, present amendments or propose a veto. In the case of the latter two cases, the initiative will return to the Congress of Deputies to continue with its processing, and will then return to the Senate to be ratified.

Once it has been completed, it will be published in the Official State Gazette, which will enter into force within the period indicated in the text of the law itself, in this case, three months after its publication, except for Title I; the first additional provision; the first to eighth transitory provisions; and the sixth final provision, which will enter into force twenty days after its publication in the Official State Gazette.

Let us hope that this amendment will contribute to speeding up eviction times, in criminal proceedings, of illegal occupants of dwellings and that similar measures can also be approved in other judicial orders, such as, for example, the precariousness trials provided for in the Law on Civil Proceedings.