At the lowest level are justices of the peace, dealing with cases involving smaller amounts of money or personal disputes.
Following the end of the Salvadoran Civil War, the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador and the Ad Hoc Commission identified weaknesses in the judiciary and recommended solutions, the most dramatic being the replacement of all the magistrates on the Supreme Court.
The process of replacing incompetent judges in the lower courts, and of strengthening the attorneys general's and public defender's offices, has moved more slowly.
The government continues to work in all of these areas with the help of international donors, including the United States.
Action on peace accord-driven constitutional reforms designed to improve the administration of justice was largely completed in 1996 with legislative approval of several amendments and the revision of the Criminal Procedure Code with broad political consensus.