The new financial management model for judicial districts will be extended to the entire territory after a pilot project starting in 2024. To achieve this, the Ministry of Justice and the Superior Council of the Judiciary signed a protocol on Monday. In a statement sent to newsrooms today, the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), the governing body for judges, makes it known that the protocol that extends the financial autonomy model already in force in some districts is celebrated at the Judge’s Housein Coimbra.
The opening session is scheduled for 10:00, with the presence of the president of the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ), João Cura Mariano (inherent president of the CSM), as well as the Minister of Justice, Rita Alarcão Júdice, and the Attorney General of the Republic, Amadeu Guerra. The session also marks “the beginning of the training course aimed at the management bodies of the districts” to implement this new management format.
The protocol, explains the Council, “envisages the expansion of a decentralized financial management model to all regions, tested in a pilot project since 2024, which seeks to reinforce the autonomy and responsiveness of the courts”, such as “delegating powers to judicial administrators for the management of certain current expenses” with the aim of providing greater flexibility in responding to the needs of each district.
Signing the protocol “it will be accompanied by the formalization of memoranda of understanding between the General Directorate of the Administration of Justice and the districts, which will now adopt this management model”. The pilot project was carried out in phases – it began in the districts of Faro and Madeira in September 2024, was extended to the districts of Coimbra and Porto in December 2024, and to the districts of Braga and Lisbon in March 2025.
To ensure the implementation of the new model and share management practices, a “a training activity aimed at district presiding judges, public prosecutors, coordinators and judicial administrators”.
In May 2024, after the presentation of a report from a working group promoted by the CSM on the administrative and budgetary autonomy of district courtsthe first Government of Luís Montenegro and the Superior Council of the Judiciary began to discuss how to implement the new model.
On the occasion, the CSM highlighted that the districts want autonomy “translates into greater savings in financial resources and better management of buildings and equipment”allowing, for example, “urgent repairs to be carried out and the courts to obtain missing IT material”.
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