CONTI Labor Lawyers
National Labor Courts · CABA

Labor Lawyer at Tribunales, Lavalle 1554 and Palacio de Justicia (CABA)

Reviewed by Dr. Guillermo Conti CPACF Vol. 154 Fol. 547 Office: Maipú 42, 9th floor, CABA

If you work —or were dismissed— in Tribunales, Lavalle 1554 or around the Palacio de Justicia, your claim has one route: SECLO first, then the National Labor Courts. That is the court system with ordinary labor jurisdiction inside the City of Buenos Aires: eighty first-instance courts and a Court of Appeals with ten chambers, steps from where you work.

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1. Which court hears your case if you work in Tribunales

Tribunales sits inside the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. That single fact decides everything else. Your case is governed by Law 18.345, the Organization and Procedure Act of the National Labor Courts (consolidated text, Decree 106/98), and not by the Buenos Aires Province labor procedure or any provincial code. The system has two instances: eighty single-judge national labor courts, each with one clerk's office, and the National Labor Court of Appeals (CNAT), made up of ten chambers of three judges that rule by majority.

First rule worth knowing: this jurisdiction cannot be waived or agreed away, not even the territorial part (sec. 19, Law 18.345). You cannot agree with your employer that the dispute will be heard somewhere else. A choice-of-forum clause in your contract is worth nothing.

Second rule: you do not walk straight into a courthouse. First you must exhaust SECLO, the mandatory pre-judicial conciliation stage that Law 24.635 imposed on every claim falling under the National Labor Courts (sec. 1). The procedure is free for you (sec. 3). The law carves out only a short list: injunctions and precautionary measures, preliminary steps and early evidence, claims against insolvent or bankrupt employers, and claims against the national, provincial or municipal State (sec. 2).

This step is not a formality. Proof that you appeared before and exhausted the conciliation stage is a filing requirement (sec. 65, subs. 7, Law 18.345). If the complaint arrives without the SECLO certificate, the judge orders you to produce it within three days or the case is shelved.

When SECLO fails, you still do not pick your court. The complaint is filed with the Court of Appeals, which sets the system for distributing cases (sec. 66): the General Clerk's Office draws the case by lot and sends it to whichever court comes up. CNAT Resolution 24/21 digitized the filing form precisely to speed up that draw at the General Filing Desk.

Once in court, the judge first reviews their own jurisdiction —they may decline it on their own motion— and then the admissibility requirements; if the complaint has defects of form, you get three days to cure them (sec. 67). Past that filter, the complaint is served on the employer with a ten-day term to answer, and service must be effected within no more than twenty days of the file reaching the court (sec. 68).

A concrete advantage of suing a company based in this area

Section 68 of Law 18.345 extends the answer deadline by one day for every hundred kilometres when the defendant is domiciled outside the City of Buenos Aires. If your employer is domiciled in Tribunales or anywhere in CABA, that extension does not apply: it answers within the minimum term and the file moves faster. Against a defendant based in the provinces, the difference is measured in weeks.

2. Working in Tribunales is not the same as living in Tribunales

  • Your home address decides nothing. Section 24 of Law 18.345 —current wording, replaced by sec. 80 of Law 27.802 (Official Gazette 6 March 2026)— gives you three options, at your choice: the judge of the place of work, of the place where the contract was made, or of the employer's domicile. Where you live is not on that list.
  • You live here but work in the province: living three blocks from the Palacio de Justicia does not open the National Labor Courts to you. If the contract was not made in CABA and your employer is not domiciled in CABA, your case goes to the Buenos Aires provincial labor courts —for example, the labor courts of Lomas de Zamora or San Isidro and Vicente López—.
  • You work here but live in the outskirts: the reverse case does work. The place of work is in CABA and that is enough, even if you live in Moreno or La Plata.
  • SECLO uses the same anchors. For your file to be accepted, one of three conditions must be met: the employer's registered domicile is in CABA, the contract was made in CABA, or the work was performed in CABA. If none applies, the agency declares itself incompetent and rejects the claim outright.
  • The co-defendant rule changed in 2026. For decades it was enough for any co-defendant to be domiciled in CABA to anchor the case here. The current wording no longer says “the defendant's domicile”: it says “the employer's domicile”. If your case's only link to the City was the head office of a workers' compensation insurer (ART) or of a jointly liable co-defendant outside the employment relationship, that is no longer enough. The reform applies to pending cases in which jurisdiction has not yet been settled.
  • Workplace accidents and occupational diseases follow a different track. Section 24 added a fourth paragraph: in claims brought under Laws 24.557 and 27.348, territorial jurisdiction follows those statutes, which are built around the jurisdictional medical board —your domicile, the place where you actually worked, or the place you habitually reported to—.
  • If your employer is the national State, you are not in the labor courts. Section 20 of Law 18.345, replaced by sec. 79 of Law 27.802, moved those cases to the Federal Administrative Litigation courts whenever the national State —Executive, Legislative or Judicial branch, or the Public Prosecutor's Office, including the entities under sec. 8(a) of Law 24.156— is a party or an interested third party.

3. Your claim step by step if you work in Tribunales

  1. Send the telegram. The labor telegram is free for the employee (Law 23.789) and puts in writing what you are claiming and since when.
  2. File at SECLO. The claim is filed on the agency's form (sec. 7, Law 24.635), and that filing suspends the statute of limitations for the term set by sec. 257 of the Labor Contract Act: six months. The general limitation period for labor claims is two years (sec. 256, LCT); the detail is in our guide on suspension and interruption of the limitation period.
  3. Conciliator draw and first hearing. SECLO appoints a conciliator from the National Registry by public draw (sec. 8) and summons a hearing to be held within ten days of that appointment (sec. 16). Hearings are currently held online (SECLO Disposition 13.028/22, Official Gazette 8 June 2022).
  4. Bringing your own lawyer is not optional. Section 17 requires legal assistance —or union representation, for employees— and caps the contingency fee at 10% of the settled amount. Failing to appear without justification carries a fine equal to 100% of the conciliator's fee (sec. 19). We expand on this in legal representation at SECLO hearings.
  5. The conciliator's deadline. Twenty business days from the hearing, extendable by up to fifteen more if both parties propose it (sec. 18).
  6. A settlement must be approved. The record goes to the Ministry of Labour, which rules within three days and approves it if the settlement is a fair composition of rights under sec. 15 of the LCT (secs. 22 and 23). If the company does not pay an approved settlement, it is enforced before the national first-instance labor courts and the judge may impose a fine in your favour of up to 30% of the settled amount (sec. 26).
  7. If there is no settlement, the judicial route opens. Only then is the complaint drafted, with the SECLO certificate and the Buenos Aires Bar Association (CPACF) bond. You can review the requirements of sec. 65 of the Organic Act.
  8. A power of attorney, if you use one, is signed in person. The rules are those of CNAT Resolution 23/13, as amended by CNAT Resolution 8/14, and under CNAT Minute No. 2751 of 27 October 2021 the signature is in person: you must go with your ID to the Power of Attorney Office at Lavalle 1554, with a prior appointment. You can also litigate with a lawyer as counsel of record, without granting a power of attorney.
  9. Draw, service and default. The judge checks jurisdiction and admissibility and serves the complaint with a ten-day term. If the company, properly served, does not answer, it is declared in default and the facts of your complaint are presumed true unless proven otherwise (sec. 71).
  10. Evidence and judgment. The oral evidence hearing must be held within ten days after the term of sec. 80, and at that hearing the judge is required to attempt a settlement. Final judgments are due within thirty days at first instance and sixty at the Court of Appeals (sec. 27). If either party appeals, the file goes up to one of the CNAT's ten chambers.

4. Which steps of your case physically happen at Tribunales

Much of the Buenos Aires labor file is electronic, but not all of it. Three acts are still anchored in this area.

The first is the draw. Your complaint is not received by a court: it is received by the General Clerk's Office of the National Labor Court of Appeals, which draws the case by computer and sends it to the court that came up. Neither you nor the company picks a judge.

The second is the power of attorney. If you act through an attorney-in-fact, the Court of Appeals' Power of Attorney Office at Lavalle 1554 requires the grantor to appear in person with ID and a booked appointment. It is the only point in the circuit where you have to be physically in the area.

The third is the CPACF bond filed with the complaint: it is a statutory obligation borne by the lawyer (sec. 51(d), Law 23.187) and is bought at the Bar Association or at the professional lounges inside the courthouse buildings.

None of this costs you money: in court proceedings, employees and their heirs are exempt from tax charges (sec. 41, Law 18.345).

What is about to change in this court system (and only affects CABA)

Section 90 of Law 27.802 approved the Agreement transferring labor jurisdiction from the national sphere to the Labor Courts of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Under Annex I, it becomes operative only 180 calendar days after approval by the National Congress —which has already happened— and by the City Legislature, and once a specific resource-transfer agreement exists.

The local court system already exists on paper: City Laws 6789 and 6790 —the latter being the Procedural Code for the Labor Courts of CABA (Official Gazette 16 January 2025)— provide for ten first-instance courts and a Court of Appeals with two chambers. But its entry into operation is suspended by the ruling of the Federal Administrative Litigation Court of Appeals, Chamber III, of 10 July 2025, in case No. 38/2025 “Asociación de Magistrados y Funcionarios de la Justicia Nacional v. Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (Laws 6789 and 6790) and another, precautionary measure”.

What this means for you: today your complaint is drawn exactly as always in the National Labor Courts, and Law 18.345 stays in force until the transfer is complete. Once it is operative, new cases will start in the City labor courts and pending cases will continue before the National Labor Courts until final judgment.

5. Mistakes that cost dearly in this court system

6. Frequently asked questions about labor claims in Tribunales and Palacio de Justicia

Where is my case heard if I work in Tribunales or at Lavalle 1554?

Before the National Labor Courts, which have ordinary labor jurisdiction inside the City of Buenos Aires: eighty first-instance national labor courts and a National Labor Court of Appeals with ten chambers of three judges. The procedure is the one set by Law 18.345.

I live a few blocks from the Palacio de Justicia but work in the province. Can I sue here?

Not simply because you live nearby. Section 24 of Law 18.345 lets you choose between the judge of the place of work, of the place where the contract was made, or of the employer's domicile. Your home address is not a connecting factor. If none of the three is in CABA, the claim goes to the labor courts of the relevant province.

I work in Tribunales but live in the outskirts. Where do I file?

In the National Labor Courts. The place where you performed your work is in the City of Buenos Aires, and that alone is enough to establish territorial jurisdiction, regardless of where you live.

Can I skip SECLO and sue directly in court?

Only in the cases the statute excludes: injunctions and precautionary measures, preliminary steps and early evidence, claims against insolvent or bankrupt employers, and claims against the national, provincial or municipal State (sec. 2, Law 24.635). Outside those, proof of having exhausted SECLO is a filing requirement (sec. 65, subs. 7, Law 18.345), and without it the judge gives you three days and then shelves the case.

Can I choose which national labor court gets my case?

No. The complaint is filed with the Court of Appeals, which sets the system for distributing cases (sec. 66, Law 18.345). The General Clerk's Office draws the case by computer and sends it to whichever court is designated.

Do I have to go in person to Lavalle 1554 to start the case?

Only if you act through an attorney-in-fact. Granting a power of attorney to start a case before the Court of Appeals requires you to appear in person with your ID at the Power of Attorney Office at Lavalle 1554, with a prior appointment, under CNAT Minute No. 2751 of 27 October 2021. If you litigate with a lawyer as counsel of record, no power of attorney is needed and you do not have to go.

How long does the company have to answer if it is domiciled in Tribunales?

Ten days from service of the complaint, and service must be effected within no more than twenty days of the file reaching the court (sec. 68, Law 18.345). Because the domicile is inside the City of Buenos Aires, no distance extension applies.

What if I worked in Tribunales but the company is based in the provinces?

You can still sue in the National Labor Courts by choosing the place of work as your connecting factor. What changes is the timing: sec. 68 extends the term by one day for every hundred kilometres when the defendant is domiciled outside the City of Buenos Aires, so the answer arrives later.

My employer is a national State agency. Does the case still go to the courts on Lavalle?

Not any more. Section 20 of Law 18.345, as replaced by sec. 79 of Law 27.802, assigns those cases to the Federal Administrative Litigation courts of the City of Buenos Aires whenever the national State —Executive, Legislative or Judicial branch, or the Public Prosecutor's Office, including the entities under sec. 8(a) of Law 24.156— is a party or an interested third party. They do not go through SECLO either.

I was injured while working in Tribunales. Does that claim go to the same place?

It follows a different path. The fourth paragraph of sec. 24 of Law 18.345 refers claims brought under Laws 24.557 and 27.348 to the territorial jurisdiction rules of those statutes, which are built around the jurisdictional medical board: your domicile, the place where you actually worked, or the place you habitually reported to.

Can my case be dismissed if the file sits idle?

Yes, and this is new. Since the Law 27.802 reform, the parties drive the proceedings and the instance lapses after six months at first instance and three months on appeal, in summary and enforcement proceedings and in incidental motions, with no prior warning (sec. 46, Law 18.345). Until 6 March 2026 the court moved the case forward on its own and this did not happen.

Is it true that the National Labor Courts are moving to the City of Buenos Aires?

It is approved but not yet operative. Law 27.802 approved the Agreement transferring jurisdiction to the Labor Courts of CABA, which under Annex I takes effect only 180 calendar days after approval by Congress and by the City Legislature and once the resource-transfer agreement is signed. On top of that, the entry into operation of the local court system created by Laws 6789 and 6790 is suspended by the ruling of the Federal Administrative Litigation Court of Appeals, Chamber III, of 10 July 2025. In the meantime, your complaint is drawn in the National Labor Courts.

Related guides for your claim in CABA

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