How to choose a lawyer in A Coruña

Spain’s Judiciary Act requires lawyers to be members of a Bar Association to act before the courts, and the General Statute of the Spanish Legal Profession reserves the title abogado for those registered with a Bar as practising members. In practice, the first check when choosing a lawyer in A Coruña is that the person who will handle your matter appears on the public register of practising lawyers. A claims company or a gestor may give you an opinion, but if they are not on that register they cannot defend you in court and no Bar oversees their professional conduct.

This guide sets out what you can check for yourself before instructing a lawyer in Spain, and the rule behind each point. It is written by Ana María Reza Cortiñas, member no. 6064, and Luis Jurado Cano, member no. 6317, both of the A Coruña Bar Association and partners at Perseus & RC Abogados, and it works for weighing up any firm, ours included. We explain every step in English, and the court documents, which are in Spanish, we go through with you.

Registered and practising, and with which Bar

The A Coruña Bar Association publishes a register of practising members, updated daily and searchable by name. A lawyer registered with another Spanish Bar will not appear there and is found in the national register of the General Council of the Spanish Bar. That lawyer can still take your case here, because practising membership of any Spanish Bar is valid throughout Spain. Every lawyer must give you their name, Bar and membership number before charging you anything, and those details must appear on their website and in their court filings.

Real specialisation, and who will actually handle the case

The specialisation a lawyer advertises is self-declared. Article 20.3 of the General Statute requires it to be backed by academic or professional qualifications, officially approved specialist training or professional practice. Practice is what matters most to you, and you can test it by asking how many similar cases they have handled and how those usually end, and by reading what they have published on the subject under their own name.

In a firm with several lawyers you are entitled to know who will work on your matter and who is in charge of it. Ask for it to be written into the engagement letter, because a partner may see you at the first meeting and someone else may go to court. If you lose confidence, the law lets you change lawyer at any time, and the previous one cannot hold on to your documents, even over unpaid fees.

Engagement letter, written quote and insurance

Since December 2024, Spain’s Right of Defence Act has entitled you to ask for the engagement to be put in writing in an engagement letter (hoja de encargo), setting out the essential steps, the main consequences of your decisions and an advance quote of fees and costs. The lawyer must also tell you how viable the case is and what an adverse costs order could cost, which in Spain means paying the other side’s legal costs if you lose.

Check what the letter covers and what it leaves out, since appeals, expert reports or the court representative (procurador), where one is required, may be charged separately, when each payment falls due and what happens if the matter ends early. Fees are freely agreed, and the guideline scales published by Bar Associations only serve to assess costs and to settle fee disputes in court.

The Code of Conduct of the Spanish Bar requires lawyers to have their professional liability covered in an amount suited to the risks, and professional firms set up as companies must be insured by law. You can ask for the terms of that cover, which is sensible when a lot of money is at stake.

Reviews and promised results

Google reviews mostly describe how the client was treated, whether calls were returned, whether they understood what was going on and whether the quote was respected. That matters, but it does not measure the quality of the defence, since good work can still lose a difficult case. Detailed reviews spread over time say more than a burst of five-star ratings with no text posted within a few days. Under Spanish unfair competition law, posting or commissioning fake reviews is a misleading practice, and a lawyer may not name clients in advertising without their consent.

Article 20.2.d of the General Statute forbids lawyers to promise in their advertising results that do not depend exclusively on them, and in litigation almost nothing does. What you should get instead is a reasoned opinion on your chances, weak points included, and if there is no basis for a claim, to be told so, because the Statute requires lawyers to try to dissuade clients from unfounded litigation.

Why it pays to choose early

Many time limits run before you have found a lawyer. A dismissal must be challenged within twenty working days, after which it becomes final. An order for payment (monitorio) gives you twenty days from service to pay or object, otherwise the court orders enforcement against you, and a claim in a verbal procedure must be answered within ten days. Filing for conciliation stops the dismissal clock, and applying for legal aid before suing interrupts the limitation period until a legal aid lawyer is appointed. The first question to ask the lawyer you choose is which deadline applies to you and when it expires.

Legal aid and duty lawyers

Spain’s Legal Aid Act (Ley 1/1996) provides a free lawyer and, where needed, a free court representative to Spanish nationals, EU nationals and foreigners who are in Spain, when they lack sufficient means. The limit is gross annual income of twice the IPREM, the public income indicator, for someone who is not part of a family unit, two and a half times for families of fewer than four and three times for four or more or large families, provided they lack sufficient assets, not counting their main home. Victims of gender-based violence, terrorism and trafficking, among others listed in the law, are entitled regardless of income in proceedings arising from that status.

You apply to the Bar Association where the court is located or at the court for your home address, and the Bar advises you free of charge and helps with the form. In A Coruña this is done by the Bar’s Legal Guidance Service (Servicio de Orientación Jurídica) in the court building on Calle Monforte, phone 981 906 707. A person under arrest who has no lawyer is given a duty lawyer without first proving their income, but will have to pay for that assistance if legal aid is later refused.

A quick checklist

How we apply these criteria at Perseus & RC Abogados

Both partners are on the A Coruña Bar register. Ana María Reza Cortiñas, managing partner of the civil practice, handles inheritance and civil law, and with Luis, employment law and debt recovery. Luis Jurado Cano handles criminal law, juvenile justice, fraud and cybercrime, has given training at C1b3rWall, the Spanish National Police cybersecurity conference, and spoke at CyberCamp 2015, organised by INCIBE. What we write about each area is signed on the blog.

Whoever sees you at the first meeting follows your case to the end, and before we start you receive an engagement letter setting out what each stage covers and its price. We do not promise results. We tell you the chances we see, what could go wrong and what an adverse costs order would cost, and, if you ask, the terms of our professional liability insurance. Luis is on the A Coruña Bar’s criminal legal aid rota, and if you qualify for legal aid we tell you at the outset.

We work mainly before the courts of A Coruña, which now sit as sections of the Tribunal de Instancia, and elsewhere in Galicia, and since 2015 the firm has opened more than 5,000 matters. All our practice areas are listed on the home page, and the team on our team page.

Where we are

Rúa Torreiro 13, 3.º C, 15001 A Coruña, Spain. Phone +34 677 841 007. If you live elsewhere, the first meeting can be held by video call, in English.