The newly-elected president of the College of Public Notaries in Jalisco (Colegio de Notarios Públicos del Estado de Jalisco), Manuel Bailón Cabrera, has stated that more public notaries are necessary for a successful transition to oral trials in the penal system. Public notaries in Mexico are specialized attorneys that resolve private disputes between individuals in matters of property, contract, probate, and corporate law. Mr. Bailón Cabrera stated that more will be expected from this group of public officials in both matters of criminal and civil law. They will be affected by coming changes to the criminal justice system since they can assist victims requesting damages for injuries suffered, and as such they must train themselves to operate in an adversarial judicial system (as opposed to the current inquisitorial one).
In civil matters, according to Mr. Bailón Cabrera, Jalisco’s public notaries will also need to develop greater mediation and arbitration skills for settling disputes outside of court and familiarize themselves with new legal issues like the electronic signature system implemented by the state government this past December. In order to meet these new demands, more public notaries are necessary. Currently, there are 313 public notaries in Jalisco, a state with nearly 7.5 million inhabitants.
For the last few years, Mexico has been in the slow process of changing its criminal justice system from the current inquisitorial system that relies on written documents to an adversarial system with oral trials. Many of these judicial reforms have occurred at the state level as opposed to the federal level. For example, the southern state of Chiapas reformed its constitution to allow for the creation of oral trials as early as mid 2008. Jalisco’s experience is one example of how states are managing these changes.
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