Civil Actions

There has been a major change to Spanish civil court procedure as a result of Act 1/2000, the Civil Procedure Act, following which the principle known as “libre valoración de la prueba”, according to which judges are free to assess the evidence, has replaced the long period of dominance of the so-called “prueba tasada”, which applied until the repeal of the Civil Procedure Act of 1881 and according to which the judge had to assign weight to a particular type of evidence in accordance with statutory provisions.

Spanish civil procedure is dominated by the principle of production [aportación]: it is the parties who are responsible for setting out the facts in their written claim and response. There are very limited situations in which the judge can reject a claim outright due to lack of grounds, with the exception of some mandatory civil procedures in which the judge is not completely released from the obligation to contribute to the formation of the evidence in the proceedings.

We set out below a list of the civil proceedings, in addition to bankruptcy proceedings, in which we will be able to assist you:

Injunction against retaining and retaking possession of property

Injunction against further construction

Order for repair or demolition of dangerous building

Proceedings for registering protection of security interests

Summary proceedings whose predominant function is enforcement

Summary enforcement proceedings [juicio ejecutivo]

Small debt proceedings involving negotiable instruments [juicio cambiario]

Enforcement of judgments for payment of debts [proceso monitorio]

Eviction proceedings [proceso de desahucio]

Special proceedings relating to agreements registered in the Register of Hire Purchase Agreements

Proceedings to challenge resolutions of public limited companies, private limited companies and co-operatives.