UPDATE: Project details updated during the EPSA 2025-26 edition. Awarded Special Recognition for continuous improvement and long-term sustainability.
The Digital Justice Programme provides electronic case management of legal affairs submitted to Courts in Spain. Moreover, the project is responsible for the implementation of new working methodologies that improve the efficiency of the legal processes. The technological solution includes a set of components that, thanks to its interoperability with the Minerva Procedural Management System, allows the judicial bodies under the Ministry of Justice jurisdiction to electronically manage data and electronic judicial documents.
The general objective of the project is to provide paperless case management at all jurisdictional levels (civil, criminal, social and contentious administrative) and all instances (jurisdictional stages in which presentation, assessment and resolution of cases presented to court may be divided) within the territorial scope of the Spanish Ministry of Justice, including the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Communications (claims, pleadings, notifications and administrative files) and the operations of signing, viewing and consulting documents are entirely electronic, eliminating the use of paper in the process and granting greater guarantees to all legal acts. The designed model generates documentation directly in electronic format and allows the adding of new digital information, such as the recordings of trials and information sent by professionals. It incorporates a system to exploit the stored documentation with the necessary security guarantees, facilitating control and follow-up of issues.
Currently, proceedings cease to be a set of papers that moves from one legal agent to another and become a set of electronic information available to all participants in the process. Documents are directly produced in an electronic format and are included in the electronic judicial file. It allows the staff of the judicial office who need to access them during their daily work to always deal with them and in a concurrent and secure manner.
Results of the project include the following:
Electronic procedural communications have been extended and consolidated, significantly reducing entry and exit of paper documents in the judicial offices, which is a key element in the implementation of the electronic judicial file. The judicial bodies present notifications electronically as well as the following groups of legal professionals: legal services of public administrations, lawyers, solicitors, social graduates, the Attorney General, state security forces and bodies, public and private health centres, penitentiary institutions, citizenship, legal entities and others.
Between 22 February 2016 and 25 September 2017, the electronic processing of legal proceedings was implemented in 100% of the provincial courts and superior courts of justice, as well as in 88% of the single judicial bodies under the Ministry of Justice jurisdiction (578 of 659). Regarding central organs, Digital Justice has been implemented in the Labour Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court. To complete its implementation, the solution is deployed in 30 judicial parties, the rest of Chambers of the Spanish Supreme Court and in the Spanish National Court.
Developments
The project has undergone a profound institutional, technological, and organisational transformation, driven by the progressive strengthening of this Directorate‑General, created by Royal Decree 453/2020 and later reorganised and expanded through Royal Decree 241/2022 of 5 April. This reform significantly increased its functional scope and operational capacity, consolidating it as the governance centre for digital modernisation within the Justice Administration.
The evolution of the project has been supported by a transformative regulatory pathway that has structured and accelerated the modernisation of the public Justice service. Royal Decree‑Laws 5/2023 and 6/2023 introduced digital and procedural efficiency measures, modernised safeguards, and reinforced electronic processing, while Organic Law 1/2025 completes the structural transformation through the implementation of the Courts of Instance and the Justice Offices in Municipalities (Oficinas de Justicia en el Municipio – OJM). Together with the Justice 2030 strategic plan and EU Recovery and Resilience facility, this framework has made it possible to advance towards a fully digital, modern, socially oriented public service, while guaranteeing digital legal certainty.
The Digital Justice model has evolved from the mere digitisation of case files to a complete ecosystem of interoperable electronic services. The implementation of an efficient Electronic Judicial File (Expediente Judicial Electrónico – EJE) with full integrity guarantees has been completed across all jurisdictions, including the Supreme Court and the National High Court. In parallel, the new Atenea Case Management system has been deployed, expanding capabilities, facilitating integration with other platforms, and supporting the new organisational model based on digital and procedural efficiency.
Real interoperability between systems constitutes another landmark achievement: the Justice Administration exchanges information automatically and exclusively by electronic means, both between judicial bodies and with all institutional and professional stakeholders (e.g. lawyers, court representatives, experts, police forces, hospitals). Since 2021, 181,000 electronic transfers have been made from procedural management systems to the Supreme Court; since 2017, more than 964 million electronic communications have been processed; since 2020, over 800 000 official notices have been sent to public administrations. The electronic reception of more than 860 000 administrative files has avoided the physical movement of millions of pages.
New digital services for citizens and professionals have also been deployed, including the Justice Folder (a 24/7 digital one‑stop shop), the multichannel Appointment Booking service, and electronic and automatic access to the judicial file, with 3.2 million accesses. Digital immediacy has been widely adopted through remote hearings, videoconferencing, and the EVID platform, and automatic transcription of court hearings has expanded, with 3.7 million transcripts since 2020, alongside specific services for vulnerable individuals.
Emerging technologies have also been incorporated, multiplying the system’s efficiency and analytical capacity: RPA, artificial intelligence for anonymisation, document classification and automated extract generation, advanced legal and jurisprudential analysis tools, question–answer and chatbot capabilities, and the automated creation of Easy‑to‑Read and Clear‑Language documents.
These advancements consolidate a fully digital, interoperable, data‑driven, and people‑centred Justice Administration.
Long-term impact
The project has generated a structural and sustainable impact fully aligned with the initial objectives of building a justice system that is more agile, accessible, interoperable, and efficient. The consolidation of the new efficiency‑based regulatory framework has enabled digitalisation to become the foundation of the judicial model, making possible electronic processing, remote hearings, interoperability, and high‑capacity automation. The implementation of the Courts of Instance and the OJM has standardised criteria, balanced workloads, and eliminated territorial barriers, strengthening the cohesion of the system.
One of the most significant impacts is RPA, with more than 19 million automated procedures that have freed hundreds of thousands of hours and accelerated management in critical areas: rapid processing of nearly EUR 2 billion in the Judicial Deposits and Consignments Accounts, reduction of nationality resolution times from five years to five months, and 93 000 hours saved in criminal record cancellations. The modernisation of the order for payment procedures reinforces this impact: 98% of payment order applications are data‑driven, 100% of registry offices operate automatically, and 70% of judicial offices process cases using robots. In 2024 alone, 238 000 automated operations have been completed, mobilising nearly EUR 400 million. Likewise, the automatic transcription of hearings has reduced more than 1.2 million hours of manual review.
The project has also driven the creation of specialised centres such as the Security Operations Centre, the Control Centre for service monitoring, and the Data Office, which is essential for the analytical use of judicial information.
For citizens, the impact is direct: 24/7 access through Justice Folder, fewer required in‑person visits, secure telematic proceedings, and full traceability of case files.
Adjustment in the objectives
The adaptation of the objectives has responded to the paradigm shift introduced by Royal Decree-Law 5/2023, Royal Decree-Law 6/2023 and culminated in LO 1/2025 (Ley Orgánica), which required moving from one-off digitalisation initiatives to a coordinated, interoperable, and fully data-driven national model. This new framework forced the expansion of the scope of the initial project to integrate electronic processing, digital immediacy, advanced automation, and complete interoperability between process management systems as structural elements of the organisational and territorial redesign of Justice.
Adaptation has had cross-cutting impacts on key public policies:
- In social policy, the OJM and the EVID platform have brought justice closer to vulnerable people, guaranteeing safe accessibility throughout the territory.
- In territorial cohesion, the consolidation of homogeneous digital services (Electronic Judicial Headquarters, Justice Folder) and interoperability projects have boosted technological integration between autonomous communities, reducing fragmentation and avoiding duplication.
- In economics and competitiveness, standardised and data-oriented procedures have reduced times and burdens for professionals, citizens, and companies.
- In sustainability, the reduction of paper, displacements, and manual processes has reduced costs and emissions.
The review of objectives has acted as an engine of systemic modernisation, favouring technological reuse between territories, promoting national standardisation, and positioning the Spanish model as an international reference.