Spanish judges - paid by the page

[Victoria J]

I was told this on Friday by a colleague. I would have instantly disbelieved it except that this colleague is (a) Spanish, and (b) has a law degree obtained in Spain.

Apparently judges in Spain used to be paid by the page - making judgements extremely long and unreadable. My colleague states that even individual sentences were often so long and convuluted as to be almost unreadable.

I can't find much by searching. Enough to see some references, but not to find out if there was an actual term for it, or when this stopped (certainly some time ago, one of the first thing that pops up when I google relates to 1500-1700 - so current then, but not necessarily ending with the period in question).

Victoria J