Important update on the court fees in Spain

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  • The Court fees were introduced by a Law enacted on November, 2012, which generated an incredible uproar of protests from all legal professional associations, including judges, prosecutors and bar associations. The main criticism was that these taxes created a barrier to entry the judicial system, thus violating the constitutional right of citizens to receive judicial protection.
  • A new Law passed in February 2015 set up that natural persons were exempt from paying Court fees. But the payable amount did not change, and small and middle sized companies still had the obligation to pay court fees.
  • Recently, on 26th July, 2016 the Spanish Constitutional Court has passed a judgment declaring the unconstitutionality of part of the 2012 law. So, at this particular moment, companies must pay court fees only in the following cases (in both Commercial and Civil Courts, depend on the specific case):
    • To initiate any judicial claim at the First Instance Courts.
    • To present an answer to enforcement proceedings brought against a party and to enforce out-of-court documents.
    • To initiate involuntary bankruptcy proceedings and to present an incidental complaint in this type of proceeding.
  • The variable fees have recently been declared unconstitutional, so only the fixed court fees (the constitutional ones) can be applied. This fee depends on the proceeding the claimant is bringing, and it is as follows:
    • Involuntary bankruptcy proceedings: 200€
    • Enforcement proceedings: 200€
    • “Monitorio” proceedings (proceedings for requirement of payment to debtor): 100€
    • “Verbal” proceedings (proceedings in which the case value is inferior to 6,000€ and when law establishes these proceedings depending on the specific case): 150€
    • “Cambiario” proceeding (proceedings to enforce commercial documents which give a credit right): 150€
    • “Ordinary” proceeding (proceedings in which the case value is superior to 6,000€ and when law establishes these proceedings depending the specific case): 300€
  • Until last July, 2016 the variable fee also applied. It was 0,5% for legal proceedings with an amount from 0 to 1,000,000€ and 0.25% for the rest of the cases. The percentage was applied to the amount of the proceeding (e.g. in a 15,000€ claim, it would be 0. 5% of that amount). However there was a cap of 10.000€.
  • The Court fees have to be paid in one lump sum at the beginning of the proceeding so that the claim is not dismissed by the Court.