Malaga's courts get stuck with backlog of 130,000 unresolved cases one year after decrease

The latest report from the High Court of Justice of Andalucía (TSJA) once again reveals the scale of the backlog plaguing Malaga's courts and the heavy workload judges face.

Although the number of unresolved cases in 2025 decreased by approximately 10,000 compared to 2024, last year ended with 130,687 pending proceedings, despite the fact that judges in virtually all jurisdictions were able to resolve more cases than they received. In addition, nearly 100,000 judgments remained unexecuted by the end of 2025.

The courts with the most unresolved cases by far are the courts of first instance, where the number of cases has reached 60,369. Nevertheless, this figure has decreased by almost 5,000 cases compared to 2024. As the TSJA states, the workload of these courts has been exceeded in practically all judicial districts of the region, but particularly in the case of Malaga, which bears the greatest burden per court in Andalucía.

The labour courts also ended the year with a significant backlog of unresolved cases, specifically 23,430. Judges received a total of 17,815 cases in 2025, in addition to the 23,430 carried over from the previous year, and were able to resolve 14,268. These courts handle particularly sensitive matters, such as dismissals. The number of cases in 2025 increased by 20 per cent compared to the previous year.

The investigating courts have reduced the number of pending cases to almost half, with 11,964 cases. Criminal courts closely follow, with 11,949 unresolved cases. For this reason, they are requesting three new judges.

There were also 9,120 unresolved administrative litigation cases, another 4,390 commercial cases, 2,979 cases of gender-based violence and 1,703 family court cases.

The courts with the fewest pending cases at the end of the year were those dealing with minors (685) and those overseeing prisons (407).

The TSJA believes it is necessary to create six new positions in the civil division of the provincial court of Malaga and another four in the criminal division. In the civil division, 7,347 cases remained unresolved. In the criminal division, there were 1,773 cases.

Although the case of the Malaga courts is particular due to its high rate of litigation, coupled with other special circumstances such as the presence of organised crime in the Costa del Sol, the TSJA's analysis extends to the entire region.

"Compliance with the constitutional mandate of justice within reasonable timeframes is an objective that does not seem close," the report concludes. The TSJA states that "the volume of pending cases has increased by 76 per cent in a decade".

The TSJA has again highlighted the large number of court rulings that remain unenforced despite already having been issued. The court has previously described the problem as "one of the black holes" of the justice system and said that, by the end of 2025, the figures once again remained "far from desirable". Malaga alone had 98,638 cases still awaiting enforcement procedures.

Most of them involved civil enforcement orders. In Malaga province, 89,403 civil rulings remained unenforced by the end of the year. Many dated back to previous years. Courts received 22,949 new enforcement cases during 2025 but judges only managed to process 18,423.

The TSJA keeps warning about the slow pace of enforcement proceedings, which in many cases delays the payment of substantial sums of money.

Malaga also recorded a seven per cent rise in criminal enforcement cases. Even so, criminal courts processed more cases than they received. According to the report, courts registered 16,923 cases and resolved 22,841. Despite that, 19,235 criminal rulings still awaited enforcement at the end of the year.

As the report explains, enforcing court rulings forms part of the fundamental right to effective judicial protection, which guarantees people the right to obtain a court decision in defence of their legitimate rights and interests without suffering legal disadvantage.

The TSJA stresses that delays in enforcement hold up the payment of large amounts of money "so that enforcement delays extend beyond the individual sphere and directly affect the economy through the paralysis of millions of euros".

The report also highlights the repeated suspension of trials and hearings, which the TSJA describes as a "serious dysfunction" that recurs every year. When courts adjourn hearings, they cannot fill the vacant slot with another case and must instead find a new date in an already overloaded court calendar, reducing the efficiency of the public justice system.

In Malaga, courts reduced adjournments across all jurisdictions, although they still postponed 26 per cent of hearings. Civil, criminal and administrative courts recorded adjournment rates of 27, 25 and 20 per cent respectively. However, the figure rose sharply in labour courts, where 54 per cent of hearings ended up postponed.