Criminal law
Published on 17 September 2026
A Spanish court summons is a short document. It gives you a date, a time, a court and a room number, and it is served on you in a way that starts a clock. What it does not do is explain any of the three things that actually determine how that day goes.
This guide covers those three, and what is particular about doing it in Barcelona.
This is the first thing to establish, before anything else, and it is not always stated in terms a non-lawyer will recognise.
You may be summoned as a witness, in which case you are obliged to attend and to tell the truth. You may be summoned as an investigado, the person whose possible involvement is being examined, in which case you are not obliged to answer anything, you have the right to a lawyer, and you have the right to be told what facts are attributed to you before you speak. You may also be summoned to a hearing that is already a trial, which in fast-track proceedings can happen sooner than most people expect.
Attending as an investigado believing you are a witness is the single most damaging error at this stage, and it is an easy one to make: the summons is a form, and forms are read quickly. If the summons calls you as an investigado, what that status means is the next thing to understand.
In Barcelona most of it happens at the Ciutat de la Justícia de Barcelona i L'Hospitalet, on Gran Via, which concentrates the investigating courts and much of the city's criminal jurisdiction. It is a large complex with several buildings, and the summons will tell you which one and which floor.
It is not the only possibility. Cases outside the city of Barcelona are heard in the courts of their own judicial district, and there are other jurisdictions with their own buildings. If the address on your summons is not the one you expected, the address on the summons is the one that counts.
One name worth knowing: since 3 October 2025 the old Juzgados de lo Penal no longer exist as such. They are now sections of a single Tribunal de Instancia in each district, under the wording that Organic Act 1/2025 gave to article 14 of the Criminal Procedure Act. That Act is dated 2 January 2025 and came into force in stages, so the date that matters for the names of the courts is October, not the date of the Act itself. Guidance written before that reform, which is most of what is available in English, still uses the old names.
This is the part people underestimate, and it is where an avoidable problem becomes a serious one.
Failing to appear when properly summoned has consequences that escalate. An investigado who cannot be found at their address, and whose whereabouts are unknown, is searched for by requisitoria: an order entered in the judicial records system and published on the single judicial notice board, with instructions to the national police forces and to the regional police of the autonomous communities with competence in public security, which in Catalonia means the Mossos (article 512 of the Criminal Procedure Act, in the wording in force since 3 April 2025). That turns a case you might have resolved into one that follows you. It also removes your best argument for good faith, and judges notice.
If the date is genuinely impossible, that is a reason to ask for a change through a lawyer, with evidence, before the date. It is not a reason to ignore it.
Service is the moment that matters, not the moment you read it. Deadlines run from proper notification, and proper notification can happen at the address you designated, or with the person you designated, without the paper ever reaching your hands. The court warns you of this at your first appearance, and the warning is specific: a summons served that way allows the trial to be held in your absence (articles 775 and 786 of the Criminal Procedure Act).
For a foreign resident this has a practical edge. If you have moved, if you spend part of the year abroad, or if your registered address is a flat you no longer occupy, you can be validly summoned to a hearing you never learn about until the consequences arrive.
You do not always have to be physically present for every step, and there are mechanisms to act through a lawyer and a procurador with a power of attorney. What those mechanisms cover, and what still requires you in the room, depends on the stage and on what you are summoned for. It is worth resolving early rather than booking a flight for every appearance, or worse, missing one.
The first thing I do with a summons is read what capacity it calls you in, and if the document is not clear, find out from the court file rather than guess. That single answer changes everything else: whether you must speak, whether you should, and what we need before the date.
Then I check what has already been served and when, because that tells me which deadlines are running, and I prepare the appearance itself: what will be asked, what the file already contains, and what is better said in writing beforehand. I do this directly, in English, and the sources I rely on are checked against the official text rather than quoted from memory. You can read how I work, or what I do in criminal defence in Barcelona.
Editorial responsibility: Carles Jiménez, attorney-at-law (Barcelona Bar No. 34.946). This note was prepared with the assistance of artificial-intelligence tools and reviewed and approved by the author before publication.
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