Changes in the Organization and Operation of the Justice System

First, the most transcendental modification in this matter is that the Bill refers to the transfer of the “National Justice” to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. In this sense, the National Executive Power is instructed to promote all the necessary acts and to execute the necessary agreements so that such transfer becomes effective within a maximum term of three years. In this way, the Bill attempts to establish a definitive term for the transfer process that began more than twenty years ago and has not yet been completed.

Second, the Bill proposes to amend laws that regulate the following regimes related to the organization and operation of the Justice system:

• Professional Fees of Attorneys, Attorneys, and Justice Assistants (Law No. 27,423). The Bill proposes to repeal Article 5 of this law, thus enabling the professionals covered by this regime to agree on the waiver of their professional fees or to agree on a lower amount than that legally provided for.

• Extraction of Funds corresponding to Judicial Deposits (Law No. 9667). The Bill proposes to simplify the system for the extraction of judicial funds through several repeals of articles of operational nature, including the elimination of the tax on the value of the applicable stamp. It also eliminates the possibility of making withdrawals of judicially deposited funds, while maintaining the possibility of removing such funds through garnishments and transfers by court order.

• Universal Judicial Registry (Decree-Law No. 3003/56). The changes introduced by the Bill reflect a modernization of the process of the Universal Judicial Registry, which would begin to be available through electronic means. The Bill also proposes that the judge in charge of the lawsuits that must be registered under this decree-law will have the duty to enter them in the Registry, removing this burden from the plaintiff.

• Publication of Edicts (Decree-Law 16.005/57). The Bill almost completely repeals this decree-law which regulated the publication of judicial edicts in newspapers, proposing instead that judicial edicts in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires must be published in the Official Gazette of the Argentine Republic.

• Judicial Archives of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (Decree-Law No. 6848/63). The Project proposes the modernization and simplification of the system, the use of digital filing, electronic documents and digital signatures.

• Law on Judicial Deposits in the National and Federal Courts at the Argentine National Bank (“Banco de la Nación Argentina”) (Law No. 26,764). The Bill proposes that judicial deposits shall no longer be made in the Argentine National Bank, but in a bank where the State has a shareholding interest at the choice of the courts, unless, by agreement and initiative of the parties, the deposit is made in another financial institution. The Bill also adds that judicial deposits may be denominated in local or foreign currency.