Posted in: Civil Law
New legal requirements for dispute resolution before litigation in Spain have been introduced on the 3rd April 2025. The Ley Orgánica 1/2025 is designed to enhance the efficiency of Spain’s Public Justice Service. The government has introduced this law to modernise and streamline the justice system. They want to reduce litigation, which has been blocking many Courts in Spain. This is an important change to Court procedures for clients and lawyers.
The law will comes into effect on April 3, 2025. However, certain elements became law from January and others are delayed until October 2025.
What does this mean for Spanish lawyers?
The law requires parties to attempt more negotiation to resolve the problem before starting a legal case in the Courts. Until now a recorded legal letter (burofax) could be sent, attempts at emails or even whatsapp and then if no response, or an unsatisfactory response, a legal action filed.
Now Courts will expect to see much more effort and time spent on attempting to reach a resolution. They will expect to see that the new law has been adhered with and proof of mediation. The lawyers now need to open a mediation process first and demonstrate this, to comply with the law. The mediation has to be resolved within 30 days if possible, however all details are not yet published.
Unfortunately, this means rather than the cost of just one letter at the beginning, a higher initial provision will be required. The lawyer needs to open a mediation process and send more communications and negotiate to try to resolve the dispute. Perhaps this may work and the new law have a beneficial effect. If not, the lawyers will still have to proceed with formal legal action but after a longer period of time. The negotiation attempts, with the burofax will then support the next step of the legal action. However, if the lawyer cannot demonstrate that sufficient attempts have been made at mediation, the Courts will take this into account when awarding costs and considering the case. It will be taken very seriously.
Basically now legal actions cannot be initiated speedily. The law requires parties to attempt a great deal more negotiation to resolve a problem before starting a legal case in the Courts.
Our first letter will suggest opening a mediation process and we then have 30 days under the new law to make a deal. After that we will have to study what the next steps are as not everything has been published yet and it may take time before all is clear.
The new legal requirements for alternative dispute resolution before litigation are going to mean slightly higher initial costs for attempts to solve a problem. But hopefully they will be beneficial as in some cases undoubtedly it will be successful and avoid barrister and Court costs and a lengthy process. Molina Solicitors are experienced in Court litigation and can assist if you let us know any problem you are experiencing.