The fast-track trial (juicio rápido) of articles 795 to 803 of the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act (LECrim) and the immediate trial for minor offences (delitos leves) of articles 962 to 964 of the same Act are confused every day, even in the wording of police summonses, and they neither last the same nor end with the same penalty. A fast-track trial for an offence ends with a judgment on the very day of the hearing at the duty court (juzgado de guardia) if the accused accepts the plea agreement of article 801, which imposes the sentence requested by the prosecutor reduced by one third, and within a legal period of roughly three weeks if the accused does not accept it, because the trial before the Criminal Court (Juzgado de lo Penal) must be listed within the following fifteen days (article 800) and judgment handed down within three days of the hearing (article 802). The minor offence trial is held at the duty court itself or listed within the following seven days, with no prior written accusation and no reduction for pleading guilty.
Fast-track trial for an offence and minor offence trial, two duty court routes that do not resemble each other
The procedure for the fast-track prosecution of certain offences requires three conditions at once (article 795.1 LECrim). The offence must carry a prison sentence of up to five years or penalties of another kind of up to ten years; the proceedings must start with a police report, with a person arrested and brought before the duty court or summoned to appear before it as the person reported; and the act must be caught in the act, be of presumably simple investigation or be one of the offences listed in the article itself. That list covers injuries, coercion, threats and habitual violence against the persons referred to in article 173.2 of the Criminal Code, theft, robbery, taking vehicles without consent, road traffic offences, criminal damage under article 263, trafficking in drugs that do not cause serious harm to health under article 368 and flagrant offences against intellectual and industrial property. Drink driving is not on that link; the most common case is drink driving, because the evidence is obtained on the spot. Excluded are offences connected to others not on the list (795.2) and cases in which the proceedings must be declared secret (795.3). A fraud reported by the victim, such as a Bizum scam, rarely enters through this route, because nobody has been arrested or summoned in the police report.
The minor offence trial is governed by articles 962 et seq. When the police learn of a minor offence of injuries or physical mistreatment, flagrant theft, threats, coercion or insults, they summon the person reported, the complainant and the witnesses directly to the duty court, and the judge holds the trial during that same duty shift if everyone appears (article 963) or lists it within the following seven days (article 965). Nobody files a written accusation with a sentence to accept beforehand and there is no third to knock off. Someone who says they have been given “a fast-track trial” over a shove with no significant injuries or a theft of under 400 euros is almost always facing a minor offence trial, with a fine and a record that does not count for recidivism (article 22.8 of the Criminal Code). What follows deals with the fast-track trial for an offence, the one that can end in prison, loss of the driving licence or a criminal record that does count.
From arrest or summons to appearance before the court, the first deadline
If you are under arrest, detention cannot last more than seventy-two hours (article 17.2 of the Constitution and article 520 LECrim), and within that limit only for the time strictly necessary. In a case headed for a fast-track trial the police close the report and bring the detainee before the duty court at the next transfer, which in practice means the same day or the following one. From the first step at the police station you have the right to a lawyer, and whatever you say there becomes part of the report the prosecutor will read at the duty court.
If you are not under arrest, article 796.1.4ª allows the police to summon you to appear before the duty court on the day and at the time they set in coordination with that court. This is usual in drink driving or theft with an identified offender. The date appears on the document you are handed, usually falls several days after the report and comes with the warning that you must appear with a lawyer and that you may be tried that same day.
That interval is the only useful margin in the whole procedure. Keep the summons or the copy of the notification of rights and write down the exact day and time. Gather what will be useful that morning, your licence and insurance if it is a traffic case, proof of income because the daily rate of any fine is set according to your financial situation (article 50.5 of the Criminal Code) and receipts for anything you have already paid the injured party. Do not call or write to the complainant, even to apologise, because that contact can be read as pressure and, if a restraining measure is in place, is in itself an offence of breach. And find a lawyer before the duty court date, because the decision that shapes the entire procedure is taken that morning.
Urgent proceedings at the duty court and the decision under article 798
Once the police report arrives, the duty court opens urgent proceedings (article 797). During that same shift it takes the statement of the arrested or summoned person with their lawyer present, hears the victim and the witnesses summoned by the police, obtains the criminal record, adds the result of the alcohol or drug test and requests the expert reports that can be produced on the spot, such as the valuation of stolen goods or the forensic report on injuries. All of it must be done within the duty shift (article 799.1). In judicial districts where the duty service is not permanent and lasts more than twenty-four hours, the judge may extend that period by seventy-two hours if the report arrived within the forty-eight hours before the end of the shift (article 799.2), and that is the only extension the law allows at this stage.
Once the proceedings are complete, the judge hears the prosecutor and the parties (article 798) and decides. If the proceedings are sufficient, the case continues as a fast-track trial. If steps are missing that cannot be taken at the duty court, the judge converts the case into an ordinary pre-trial investigation (diligencias previas) under the abbreviated procedure and the timeframes change completely, as I explain below.
Precautionary measures are decided at that same hearing. The protection order under article 544 ter, the prohibition on approaching under article 544 bis and pre-trial detention, which requires the hearing of article 505 within seventy-two hours of being brought before the court, are decided at the duty court, and the accused leaves with the measure already imposed. It is also the moment when the victim is informed of the right to bring an action and may join as private prosecutor, which matters because the plea agreement of article 801 requires that there be no private prosecutor or that the private prosecutor also accept it. If there is damage to compensate, the valuation is added to the proceedings, and where it has not been quantified the judge may set the basis and leave the amount for enforcement (article 115 of the Criminal Code); to suspend a prison sentence, the accused’s undertaking to pay within the period set is enough (article 801.3).
The plea agreement of article 801, judgment the same day with one third less
If the judge decides to continue as a fast-track trial, the trial is opened and the prosecutor files the written accusation with the specific sentence on the spot (article 800.1). At that point the accused may plead guilty. Article 801 allows the duty judge to deliver judgment if no private prosecutor has joined or the private prosecutor agrees (article 801.5), if the offence carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, a fine of any amount or a penalty of another kind of up to ten years, and if the prison term requested, once reduced by one third, does not exceed two years. The judgment imposes the sentence requested reduced by one third, even if that falls below the legal minimum for the offence (article 801.2), and is delivered orally at the same hearing. If prosecutor and defence state that they will not appeal, it becomes final there and then.
The typical example is drink driving. Article 379.2 of the Criminal Code punishes it with three to six months in prison, a fine of six to twelve months or thirty-one to ninety days of community service, and in every case loss of the right to drive for one to four years. If the prosecutor asks for an eight-month fine and one year and one day without a licence, the plea agreement leaves the fine at just over five months and the disqualification at about eight, below the article’s minimum. If there is a prison sentence, the judge decides in the same judgment whether to suspend it under the conditions of article 80 of the Criminal Code. The judge then issues whatever orders apply, for instance the surrender of the licence, and sends the file to the Criminal Court, which enforces the sentence (article 801.4).
A plea agreement is worth it when the prosecution evidence is solid and the reduced sentence does not drag consequences that outweigh it. It stops being worth it when there is a defence on the merits, such as an alcohol test carried out without the required safeguards, a police report with contradictions or disputed facts, and also when the sentence, even reduced, triggers collateral effects, a disqualification of more than two years, which means the licence itself lapses (article 47.3 of the Criminal Code), a criminal record incompatible with your job or your immigration status, or a restraining order that keeps you out of your own home. All of that is weighed by reading the police report and the prosecutor’s accusation that same morning, before answering the judge. At the firm we conduct the criminal defence from the police station or from the duty court itself, and that is the moment when the decision to plead or to go to trial is taken with the client.
How long a fast-track trial takes until judgment if there is no plea
If the accused does not plead guilty, the defence files its written defence on the spot or asks for time, which the judge grants for a maximum of five days (article 800.2). The court clerk lists the trial before the Criminal Court at the earliest possible date and in any event within the following fifteen days, on the days and times that court reserves for fast-track trials (article 800.3). The accused leaves the duty court with a date and time and with the warning that, if they fail to appear without justification, the trial may be held in their absence when the sentence requested does not exceed two years in prison (article 786.1, applicable by reference from article 802.1). If on the day of the trial there is just cause not to hold it, or it does not finish in one session, the new date is set within the following fifteen days (article 802.2). Judgment is delivered within three days of the end of the hearing (article 802.3).
Added together, the legal periods come to about three weeks from the duty court to judgment. Legal commentary calls them non-binding deadlines, because missing them neither voids anything nor benefits the accused, and whether they are actually met depends on the diary of the Criminal Court the case is assigned to. What can be insisted on is that the trial is listed at the duty court and that the date appears on the summons you take with you.
| Stage | Period set by law | Article LECrim |
|---|---|---|
| Police detention | Maximum 72 hours | 520 (and article 17.2 of the Constitution) |
| Urgent proceedings at the duty court | Within the duty shift, extendable by 72 hours where the duty service is not permanent | 797 and 799 |
| Written defence if there is no plea | On the spot or within up to 5 days | 800.2 |
| Trial before the Criminal Court | Within 15 days of the duty court hearing | 800.3 |
| Judgment after the hearing | 3 days | 802.3 |
| Appeal | 5 days to appeal; Provincial Court judgment within 3 days of the hearing or 5 if there is none | 803 |
The table shows the periods for a fast-track trial that runs its course. If the case is converted into an ordinary pre-trial investigation, none of them applies.
Fast-track trial for gender violence, how long it takes and what changes
The periods are the same, fifteen days to trial and three for judgment, but the court and the mechanics change. Jurisdiction lies with the Court for Violence against Women (Juzgado de Violencia sobre la Mujer), and article 797 bis provides that the urgent proceedings take place during that court’s sitting hours. If the arrest happens at night or at the weekend, the duty court does what is essential, decides what cannot wait and brings the detainee before the Court for Violence against Women on the first working day. When the police summon without arresting, they summon directly to that court.
The protection order under article 544 ter is decided at the hearing, and its hearing must be held within seventy-two hours of the application, so the accused leaves with the prohibition on approaching and communicating, if granted, before any judgment exists. The victim is informed of the right to bring an action and may join as private prosecutor, which makes the plea agreement of article 801 conditional on her also accepting it. Anyone accused of gender violence will find the defence side covered in a separate article.
The usual offences are mistreatment under article 153.1 of the Criminal Code, with six months to one year in prison or thirty-one to eighty days of community service, minor threats under article 171.4 and minor coercion under article 172.2, always with the restraining penalty of article 57.2, which is mandatory and which a plea agreement can shorten but not remove. If a suspended prison sentence is agreed, the suspension carries equal treatment programmes with it (article 83.2 of the Criminal Code). When the victim invokes her exemption from testifying, when there are cross-complaints or when the forensic report is not available at the duty court, it is common for the judge to convert the case into an ordinary pre-trial investigation, and the case stops being fast.
When the judge converts the case into an ordinary investigation, the clock changes scale
Conversion under article 798.2.2ª takes the case out of the fast-track trial and into the abbreviated procedure. The reference period becomes that of article 324 LECrim, twelve months of investigation from the opening of the case, extendable for successive periods of up to six months at the request of the prosecutor or the parties. Once the investigation ends, the judge issues the order under article 779, the prosecutor and any prosecutors file their accusations, the trial is opened and the defence files its written defence (articles 780 to 784). The Criminal Court lists the trial with no maximum period set by law, judgment is delivered within five days of the end of the hearing (article 789.1) and the appeal is lodged within ten days (article 790.1).
For the accused, conversion has two effects. The automatic one-third reduction disappears, because it is exclusive to the plea agreement at the duty court; in the abbreviated procedure a plea remains possible up to the start of the trial, but on whatever sentence the prosecutor chooses to request and with no legal discount. And the precautionary measures ordered at the duty court, the restraining order or the provisional withdrawal of the driving licence under article 529 bis, remain in force throughout the investigation, so a case that was going to be resolved in weeks keeps those restrictions in place for months.
Appeal, finality and enforcement of the sentence, the stretch almost nobody explains
The judgment of the Criminal Court may be appealed to the Provincial Court (Audiencia Provincial) with the special rules of article 803 LECrim. The period to lodge the appeal is five days, not the ten of the abbreviated procedure, the other parties have a further five days to respond, the processing has priority and the Provincial Court must deliver judgment within three days of the hearing, if there is one, or within five days of receiving the file if there is not. Whether those periods are met again depends on the workload of the section. The Provincial Court’s judgment is final and cassation is available only for error of law within the strict terms of article 847.1.b LECrim, which reaches very few cases.
The sentence begins to be served when the judgment is final (article 803.3), and enforcement lies with the Criminal Court even when the judgment was delivered by the duty judge. A fine is paid within the period that court sets, in one go or in instalments if authorised for good reason (article 50.6 of the Criminal Code), and non-payment gives rise to subsidiary personal liability of one day of deprivation of liberty for every two unpaid daily units, which may be served through community service (article 53). Community service is managed through the penalty management services of the Prison Administration, which draw up a plan and assign a placement, and that step adds time the law does not fix. Loss of the driving licence runs from the moment the licence is handed in at the court, which is why the order to surrender it is issued at the duty court itself. Once the period of article 136 of the Criminal Code has elapsed since the sentence was served, two years for sentences of up to twelve months and three for other less serious sentences under three years, the record can be expunged; until then it stands and may prevent a future suspension.
The morning at the duty court decides the case and does not come round again
What sets this procedure apart from any other is that the decision that shapes the conviction, to plead or to defend, is taken while reading a police report in a room at the duty court, with the prosecutor waiting, and the plea judgment becomes final on the spot if the right to appeal is waived. Someone who turns up alone, or with a lawyer who sees the case for the first time at that moment, accepts a sentence without having checked whether the breath test was carried out with the required safeguards, whether the report correctly identifies the offender or whether the one-third reduction makes up for the loss of the licence or the record it brings. At the firm we conduct the defence from the arrest or the summons, study the police report before the hearing and put forward a plea or a trial according to what the case allows. You can call +34 677 841 007 or write through the contact page, and we reply as soon as possible.
Frequently asked questions
How long passes between arrest or police summons and the appearance before the duty court?
If you are under arrest, a maximum of seventy-two hours (article 17.2 of the Constitution and article 520 LECrim), and the usual practice is to be brought before the court at the next transfer, the same day or the following one. If you are only summoned, the date is set by the police in coordination with the duty court (article 796.1.4ª), appears on the document you are given and usually falls several days after the report.
How many days do I have from the summons to the trial date if there is no plea agreement?
Fifteen days at most from the duty court hearing to the trial before the Criminal Court (article 800.3 LECrim). The trial is listed at the duty court itself and you leave with a date and time. The defence may ask for up to five days to file its written defence (article 800.2), and if the trial is adjourned for just cause, the new date falls within the following fifteen days (article 802.2).