Balearic courts accumulate more work: 2.4% more cases and 9.1% fewer resolutions

The courts in the Balearic Islands, like healthcare or education, are also overwhelmed, as they are accumulating more and more pending matters. During the first semester of 2026, they resolved 9.1% fewer cases than in the second semester of last year, while the number of incoming matters increased by 2.4%.

The result is a "worrying" increase in the backlog, as acknowledged this Wednesday by the president of the High Court of Justice, Carlos Gómez, during the opening ceremony of the judicial year in the Islands.

Despite these data, Gómez has denied that the entry into force of the Efficiency Law has caused a paralysis of the first instance. The president considered himself prudent regarding the fact that the reduction in the number of resolved matters is "expected and understandable" in the face of the first profound reorganization of the judicial system that the reform has brought about, which he considered the "greatest change to the first instance" since 1870.

According to Gómez, the data "refute" the concern generated by the implementation of the new regulation. The decrease in resolutions, he argued, must be contextualized within a period of transformation of the judicial system, which is still too recent for the changes to be visible. Thus, he added that the problem is that this reduction coincides with an increase in new proceedings, a fact that ends up translating into more pending files.

13 new positions out of the 39 needed

In this context, the president of the TSJIB has celebrated the creation of new judicial positions following the entry into force of the Efficiency Law. In the Balearic Islands, 13 of the 39 considered necessary have already been created.

Gómez has pointed out that for 2027, similar figures for new positions have already been announced, a fact that would allow the judicial system to continue getting closer to the number of judges necessary to respond to the workload, since the highest representative of the TSJIB considers that it is in the lack of judges where the "bottleneck" of the slowing down of judicial resolution is created. In this sense, he has explained that the lack of human resources is one of the issues that condition the courts' capacity to absorb the cases that enter them. In the first semester of 2026, however, the evolution of the data has caused the backlog of pending cases to continue growing.

Gómez defends the independence and impartiality of judges

During his speech, Gómez also vindicated the independence and impartiality of the judiciary in the face of the current climate of polarization and questioning of institutions, including the Administration of Justice.

The president of the TSJIB defined independence and impartiality as an “inseparable binomial.” While independence protects judges from external pressures, impartiality, as he explained, challenges professionals individually. In this sense, he warned of the influence of “prejudices” and “cognitive biases,” which can “distort” judges' perception. “Independence places the enemy outside,” he stated.

The Public Prosecutor's Office warns of sexual crimes against minors

For his part, the Attorney General of the Balearic Islands, Adrián Salazar, has focused on some of the main challenges currently detected by the Public Prosecutor's Office. In this sense, Salazar has cited several crimes that have increased in recent years and has done so in a marked social speech, as he has pointed out that Justice and, specifically, the Public Prosecutor's Office are not entities impervious to society.

Thus, he has referred to and shown concern both in his official capacity and as a citizen regarding the housing crisis and the collapse of the main services of the Islands, such as Healthcare, Education, or Justice. He also referred to the progressive impoverishment of the citizens of the Balearic Islands, a fact he indicated as contradictory, since the Islands are one of the places with the highest economic growth and the lowest unemployment rate and, in this line, he referred to the Fenix report presented by experts in the field at the UIB.

All in all, the highest representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office in the Balearic Islands has highlighted the increase in sexual crimes against victims under 16 years of age. Salazar also warned of the increasing complexity of international drug trafficking networks, with increasingly sophisticated structures. The Attorney General has also pointed out the impact of population growth, both regular and irregular, on conflict and, consequently, on litigation. A situation that adds pressure to courts already facing an increase in pending cases.

The opening ceremony of the judicial year has thus served to highlight the tensions facing the Balearic justice system: more cases entering the courts, fewer cases resolved in the first half of the year, and a backlog that is increasing, in parallel with the reorganization of the first instance and the progressive arrival of new judicial positions.