New judicial agreement reduces magistracy coordinations from 184 to 112

The Plenary of the Judicial Administration Body approved General Agreement AG-POAJ-022/2026, which establishes the provisions regarding the operation of the coordinations of the Circuit magistracies and the heads of the District courts, and repeals the scheme inherited from the extinct Federal Judiciary Council. The agreement is published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, in the Judicial Power section (pp. 88-95), and will enter into force on December 1, 2026.

The instrument is issued based on articles 94 and 100 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States and articles 1, fraction VIII, 70, and 80, fractions II and III of the Organic Law of the Federal Judiciary. Among its recitals, the Plenary recalls that on September 15, 2024, the constitutional reform regarding the Judicial Power was published, which extinguished the Federal Judiciary Council and created the Judicial Administration Body and the Judicial Discipline Tribunal, necessitating an adjustment of the administrative regulatory framework.

The previous agreement, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on October 7, 2016, established a total of 184 coordinations of magistracies and District courts, a figure that, according to the Plenary itself, hindered timely institutional communication and the homogeneous attention to administrative needs.

One scheme per circuit instead of 184 coordinations

Article 1 of the agreement distributes the coordinations among the 32 judicial circuits, by building or residence and, where applicable, by area of specialization. The totals detailed by the instrument itself per circuit sum to 112 coordinations, compared to the 184 of the repealed scheme. The circuits with the highest number are:

• First Circuit: 12 coordinations, including those of the Regional Plenaries, the Regional Auxiliary Center, and the Federal Labor Court for Collective Matters.
• Second Circuit: 6 coordinations, with headquarters in Toluca, Naucalpan, Nezalcóyotl, and Almoloya de Juárez.
• Seventh, Twelfth, Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-First Circuits: 5 coordinations each.
• Circuits with 4 coordinations: Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Tenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Twentieth.
• Circuits with 2 coordinations: Sixth, Eleventh, Fourteenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-Second to Twenty-Sixth, Twenty-Eighth to Thirtieth, and Thirty-Second.

The collegiate courts of the Regional Auxiliary Center of the corresponding locality shall be included in the magistracy coordinations; in the District court coordinations, the Federal Criminal Justice Centers, the Federal Labor Courts for Individual Matters, and the Regional Auxiliary Center courts shall be included, as applicable.

Election, term, and functions of the coordinating persons

The holders of the magistracies and District courts shall appoint their coordinator and an alternate during the first week of December, by a simple majority of the votes cast and upon call by the outgoing coordinator. The appointment shall observe the principle of gender parity to the extent permitted by the composition of each coordination, and shall be recorded in the minutes.

• The term of office shall last two years, beginning in January of the year following the election, and may be re-elected for the immediate subsequent period.
• Each coordinator shall have an alternate; in the event of a permanent absence or change of assignment, a new alternate shall be elected within a maximum period of fifteen business days.
• The appointment does not create an additional position, extraordinary remuneration, or additional personnel allocation.
• The liaison with the Judicial Administration Body shall be the General Directorate of Liaison and Inter-institutional Relations, which will receive requests and maintain an institutional directory of coordinators.
• The results of the management shall be reported to the holders of the property, residence, or specialization within the following fifteen calendar days.

Transition Calendar

The agreement shall enter into force on December 1, 2026, except for the provisions of its fourth transitory article, effective from the day following its approval. The coordinations appointed under the repealed agreement shall continue in office until December 31, 2026; the new ones must be appointed during the first week of December 2026 and shall begin their duties on January 1, 2027. Pending matters in process or follow-up by the expiring coordinations must be referred to the corresponding coordinations according to the new distribution.

The agreement was approved by a unanimous vote in a session on September 9, 2026, by the members of the Plenary: Néstor Vargas Solano, President; Surit Berenice Romero Domínguez; Xóchitl Almendra Hernández Torres, and Catalina Ramírez Hernández. The certification was carried out by the Executive Secretary of the Plenary, César Mauricio López Ramírez, in Mexico City on September 11, 2026. In addition to the Official Gazette of the Federation, the agreement will be published in the Judicial Weekly of the Federation and its Gazette and on the body’s internet and intranet portals.

The relevance of the change is structural: the Federal Judiciary is moving from a framework of 184 coordinations to a scheme of 112 circuit liaisons, with clear rules for election, parity, substitution, and accountability, and with a single institutional channel before the Judicial Administration Body. For litigants and jurisdictional personnel, the new design seeks to accelerate the attention to common administrative needs and homogenize communication between the jurisdictional bodies and the judicial administration starting in January 2027.

Source: Official Gazette of the Federation, September 23, 2026, Judiciary, pgs. 88-95 (official reference: AG-POAJ-022/2026).