Morocco Justice Ministry: 160M Case Files at Risk

Morocco's Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi revealed that the Kingdom's judicial archive holds nearly 160 million accumulated case files, a large share of them piled up in court warehouses and on courthouse rooftops, exposed to damage from rain and water leaks, according to Alyaoum24.

The minister said, while presenting the Justice Ministry's sectoral budget and that of the Supreme Judicial Council before the Justice, Legislation, Human Rights and Freedoms Committee in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, that the state of the judicial archive is one of the most serious files facing the ministry, given its link to citizens' rights, property and personal and family data.

Slow digitization: only 8 million of 160 million files processed

Ouahbi said the ministry has spent three years working to organize the judicial archive, but has so far managed to register and number only 8 million of the 160 million files. He said the ministry agreed to integrate file numbers into its IT system, allowing the exact storage location of each file, down to the warehouse or box, to be identified, so citizens can access their documents without the usual difficulty of searching inside courts.

Missing files linked to deceased or departed judges and staff

The minister noted that the problem is not limited to old files, but also includes documents linked to employees and judges who died or left their posts, making it difficult to locate files that were under their responsibility despite their link to citizens' rights and interests, particularly regarding property, wills and inheritance. He added that the lack of organization had forced some citizens to visit court more than once without obtaining their documents, because the exact location of their files was unknown.

Ouahbi said digitizing and organizing the archive's data will in future allow citizens to locate their files electronically and go directly to the relevant court registry to obtain copies, without the lengthy manual search previously required.

The disclosure comes as the House of Representatives debates the 2027 Finance Bill, which includes the Justice Ministry's sectoral budget, as part of a judicial reform drive the government is counting on to improve service for citizens and speed up their access to administrative and judicial documents.