Criminal defence lawyer in A Coruña

If you have been arrested, summoned as a suspect or need to report a crime in A Coruña, you have found a criminal defence lawyer who handles these matters every week in the city’s courts. Perseus & RC Abogados is at Rúa Torreiro 13, in the city centre, and the criminal practice is led by Luis Jurado Cano, member no. 6317 of the A Coruña Bar Association (ICACOR), who devotes his practice to criminal defence, economic crime and cybercrime. We work in English and Spanish.

We appear before the investigating and criminal courts of A Coruña, on Rúa Monforte, before the Provincial Court and the High Court of Justice of Galicia, and before the other judicial districts of Galicia when the matter requires it. The judicial district of A Coruña covers, besides the city, Oleiros, Culleredo, Cambre, Arteixo, Carral and Cerceda, so if you live in any of those municipalities your case is handled in these same courts.

If you have been arrested, or a family member is about to be

The first rule is that nobody makes a statement without a lawyer. A detainee has the right to remain silent, to appoint a lawyer of their choosing and to meet with that lawyer privately before making any statement, and the appointed lawyer must attend the police station within three hours of receiving the instruction, under article 520 of the Criminal Procedure Act. If the police call to tell you a family member has been arrested, ask them to record that a private lawyer is being appointed, and call us. We go to the police station or to the duty court in A Coruña, meet with the detainee, examine what there is and decide with them whether to make a statement or not. That decision, taken calmly and with the information in front of us, is the one that carries the most weight in everything that follows.

If you have been summoned as a suspect

A summons as a suspect is neither a charge nor a conviction, but it is the moment when much of the outcome is settled. Before making any statement you have the right to know the facts attributed to you and to examine the case file, under article 118 of the Criminal Procedure Act. We request the file, read it in full, prepare the statement with you and decide which investigative steps it is in your interest to propose. Making a statement without having seen the police report is handing an advantage to the prosecution.

What we defend

• Economic and property offences. Fraud, misappropriation, disloyal administration, forgery, criminal insolvency and money laundering, including the defence of people who unknowingly received the proceeds of a scam in their account and are now under investigation as money mules.
• Cybercrime and bank fraud. This is the firm’s speciality, both for victims who want their money back and for suspects. It has its own page, cyber fraud and cybercrime lawyer in A Coruña.
• Gender-based and domestic violence. Defence of the accused from the duty court onwards and, on the other side, protection orders and prosecution on behalf of the victim.
• Offences against the person. Assault, threats, coercion, harassment, and offences against privacy and honour.
• Minor offences. Minor-offence trials are lost by turning up unprepared. We explain what is at stake and go with you.
• Road traffic offences. Drink driving, driving without a licence and reckless driving, where the decision whether to plead or not almost always has to be taken at the duty court.
• Juvenile justice. Defence before the Public Prosecutor and the Juvenile Court of A Coruña under Organic Law 5/2000.
• Prison law. Prison leave, third-degree classification, parole and appeals before the Prison Supervision Court.
• Appeals. Appeals before the Provincial Court and the High Court of Justice of Galicia, and cassation before the Supreme Court.
• Clearing criminal records before the Central Criminal Records Registry.

If you are the victim

Reporting a crime is not the same as prosecuting it. With a police report the proceedings are left in the hands of the Public Prosecutor. By appearing as a private prosecutor with your own lawyer, you decide which investigative steps are requested, you appeal what harms you and you claim compensation within the same criminal proceedings, without waiting for a later civil case. In fraud cases you also need to ask straight away for the destination accounts to be frozen and their holders identified, because every week that passes the money is further away.

Fast-track trials and plea agreements

A large share of criminal matters in A Coruña are resolved at the duty court through the fast-track procedure. There, within hours, it is decided whether to accept a plea agreement, which reduces the sentence by one third under article 801 of the Criminal Procedure Act, or whether going to trial is the better course. There is no general answer. It depends on the evidence the prosecution holds, on your record and on what you stand to lose, and that calculation has to be made with the police report in hand, not in the corridor.

How we work

1. First meeting. You tell us what happened and bring everything there is, the summons, the police report, messages, documents. We tell you frankly where you stand and what your options are.
2. A written quote before we start. You know what each stage costs before you instruct it.
3. Strategy and evidence. We prepare the statement, propose investigative steps and, when the evidence is electronic, we analyse it ourselves before anyone else does.
4. With you at every step. Police station, duty court, investigation, trial and appeals. Before each step we explain what is going to happen and what is being decided.

Our speciality, electronic evidence

Almost every criminal case today has a digital side. WhatsApp messages, the positioning of a mobile phone, access logs, transfers with an exact time, recordings. Knowing how that evidence is obtained, how it is preserved and how it is challenged decides many trials, and in this firm that technical side is handled in-house. Luis Jurado has run workshops on digital investigation for the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE) and writes on mobile phone positioning and on why electronic evidence decides cases.

Who defends you

Luis Jurado Cano, A Coruña Bar no. 6317 and a law graduate of the University of Seville, leads the criminal practice. He has spoken at INCIBE’s CyberCamp 2015 and at SECAdmin 2018, sits on the editorial board of a scientific journal of the University of Seville, and was consulted by La Voz de Galicia in 2025 on cryptocurrency scams. He handles your matter personally, from the first call to the judgment. Civil matters that cross paths with the criminal case, a claim for payment, an inheritance or a dispute with the bank, are handled by Ana Reza, managing partner for the civil practice.

Where we are

Rúa Torreiro 13, 3.º C, 15001 A Coruña, in the city centre. Telephone +34 677 841 007. Open Monday to Thursday from 9 am to 8 pm and Friday from 9 am to 3 pm. For arrests and duty-court matters the same number is answered outside those hours. If your case has a deadline running, say so in the first sentence.

You may also be interested in

• You’ve been reported for a minor offence, what’s at stake and what to decide
• Assaulted, threatened or robbed, what’s at stake in a minor-offence trial
• Accused of gender violence, what happens after the report and how to defend yourself
• Gender violence, the protection order and the victim’s rights from day one
• Drink-driving offence in Spain, penalties, limits and what to do if you are stopped
• How to expunge your criminal record in Spain
• Under investigation for a cybercrime, what is at stake and how to defend yourself
• Investigated for a child abuse images offence, your rights and why the forensic evidence decides everything
• Squatters in your property, what the owner can do and what to avoid

Articles on Criminal law in our blog →