The Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Julio Pérez, has met with the Canary Islands Council of Bar Associations, which was headed by its president, Juan Antonio Rodríguez, with the aim of "addressing different aspects related to the legal aid system and its current remuneration criteria", which in 2021 amounted to "more than 22 million euros and the approval of a supplementary credit".
The meeting was also attended by the general director of Relations with the Administration of Justice, Mónica Ceballos, the dean of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Bar Association, José Manuel Niederleytner, the president of the Legal Aid Commission of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Bar Association, Jonay Ríos, as well as Dulce García, Ignacio Herrero and José Manuel Mentado, representing the bar associations of La Palma, Lanzarote and Las Palmas, respectively.
Julio Pérez has committed to creating "a working group" between the General Directorate of Relations with the Administration of Justice and the Council to, among other things, "clarify and agree on the current interpretative criteria when remunerating free legal assistance to lawyers and solicitors, and revise the instructions in relation to the special immigration shift and additional services due to incompatibility".
In both cases, according to Mónica Ceballos, it is about "establishing invariable criteria and improving the procedures and the procedure for justifying or settling the subsidies given to the colleges and that are intended to remunerate lawyers for free assistance services."
According to the Government, the commitment of the head of Public Administrations, Justice and Security also includes the study, by the working group, of a possible modification of the order of May 17, 2019, "to remunerate those concepts currently excluded, such as the intervention of lawyers in instruction proceedings that are dismissed by dismissal, at a time after the guard", thanks to the effective intervention of these.
Julio Pérez has also shown the Council his willingness to "analyze whether it is necessary to establish a special shift for the care of child victims of crime", in accordance with the latest legislative developments that guarantee "the defense of these minors and urge schools to provide training to their members".
Throughout the meeting, the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security has opted to "promote mediation as a way to reduce the high rate of litigation in the Canary Islands, which places the islands at the head of the country".