Overload in Palma court

A COURT in Palma set up specially to cope with issues of domestic violence is expected to have more than a thousand cases on its books by the time 29 June 2006 comes round, exactly a year to date after its opening. Senior judge Pedro Barcelo said yesterday that the system is going to suffer from a “real overload” and emphasized the need for measures to cope with the excess, including the establishing of a second court. Barcelo pointed out that a Balearic Tribunal had been asking for such measures since the opening of the Domestic Violence court at the end of last June. Finally, on Tuesday this week, Justice Minister Fernando Lopez Aguilar announced that plans for extra support for Domestic Violence courts in Palma, Alicante and Granada would be put in place due to the overload of work in these locations. Barcelo said that the Palma court is working unreasonably hard with ongoing morning and afternoon shifts. Staff were also having to deal with cases of separation and divorce where domestic violence had been involved. Barcelo said it was “impossible” for only one court to handle the criminal issues, arrests and sentencing which is involved in domestic violence. The processing of such cases quickly gather momentum and produce a great deal of work because the perpetrators of the violence are almost always known, unlike in robbery cases where an unidentified culprit means cases are handled more slowly.