Spain: Main changes in the procedures of the social jurisdiction, introduced by the Law on the Efficiency of the Public Justice Service

The following changes in the Law Regulating Social Jurisdiction (LRJS, for the acronym in Spanish) stand out:

• Indication of conciliation and trial acts. It is foreseen that the conciliation and trial acts can take place separately or successively (until now they could only be successive on the same day). Any party may request early conciliation if it reasonably considers that there is a possibility of reaching an agreement, and the legal counsel for the Administration of Justice may also do so ex officio if they consider that it may be feasible for the parties to reach an agreement. Advance conciliation will be held from 10 days after the admission of the claim and at least 30 days before the trial is held, except in the cases set out in the LRJS.  
  
  Efforts shall be made to set for the same day the conciliation of the proceedings that refer to the same interested parties and cannot be joined. Once the advance conciliation has been held, it will not be repeated on the day of the hearing, unless the parties express their intention to reach an agreement.
• Evidence. In the summons, the parties who will provide evidence will be required to try to use it 10 days before the trial, in electronic format, unless the party is not obliged to interact electronically with the Administration of Justice. After this period, documents, opinions, means and instruments relating to the merits of the case will only be admitted when they are: (i) of a later date (provided that they could not have been prepared or obtained previously); (ii) of an earlier date, provided that the party presenting them justifies not having been previously aware of their existence; (iii) it has not been possible to obtain the evidence earlier for reasons not attributable to the party, provided that the designation of the file, protocol or place where it is located, or the register, record book, proceedings or file for which it is intended to obtain a certification or announce, as the case may be, the opinion, has been made within the deadline.
• Conciliation celebration. The parties may advance the text of the agreement reached electronically. If it is digitally signed by all parties, a decree will be issued within a maximum period of 3 days. Failing this, for subsequent ratification and signature, the parties will be summoned to appear within a maximum period of 5 days.
• Failure of the defendant to appear. The unjustified failure of the defendant to appear at the judicial conciliation act may entail the sanction provided for in article 97.3 of the LRJS.
• Oral judgements. The possibility of oral judgements being issued is extended to any procedure (except in those in which a lawyer or social graduate does not intervene). The oral rulings will be documented in the audiovisual format of the hearing, and it will be delivered after it, in the presence of the parties, without prejudice to the subsequent drafting of the heading by the judge/magistrate, the proven facts and the reference to the reasons pronounced orally (which will be reproduced) and the full judgement, with express indication of their finality or the appropriate appeals, the body before which they must be lodged and the deadline for doing so.
• Procedural duties. The minimum range of fines for recklessness is increased from €180 to €600 in article 75.4 of the LRJS.
• Cassation interest. The Supreme Court must assess the existence of objective cassation interest to be able to appeal in cassation for the unification of doctrine. Such interest exists when (i) there are circumstances that advise a new ruling by said Court; (ii) the issue has a significant transcendence or projection; or (iii) the debate raised is relevant for the formation of case law.

If evidence is presented after the deadline has expired, the other parties may argue in the trial that it is inadmissible to take it into consideration. The court will rule on the spot and, if there is a dilatory intent or bad faith, it may impose a fine within the limits of article 75.4 of the LRJS (the lower limit has been increased as explained below).

The request for evidence by the parties must also be made at least 10 days before the date of the trial (except when the indication must be made less in advance, in which case the period will be 3 days).

If the early conciliation is held and no agreement is reached, the lawyer for the Administration of Justice will record in the minutes the controversial aspects that have prevented it and, if there are procedural issues that could lead to the suspension of the trial, such as the existence of third parties who must be called to the proceedings or the bankruptcy situation of any of the participants,  it will warn the parties in the terms established in article 81 of the LRJS.

Check here other labor news derived from the LOSPJ. You can also check the changes in the civil and contentious-administrative jurisdictions.