Litigation & ADR Annual Report
Barriers to appeal
Spain has made access to its Supreme Court much tighter to ease the case burden on the
country’s most senior legal institution
Eduardo de León
The Spanish Supreme Court is the last
resort for matters from its national and
regional courts, covering both criminal
and civil appeals that deal with the
laws of Spain, explains Eduardo de
León, a Dispute Resolution Partner at
Araoz & Rueda.
Recent cases in the Supreme Court,
for example, have focused on matters
as diverse as the legal standing of the
wearing of burqas in public spaces, he
says, the charging of capital gains tax
on foreign entities and the criteria for
obtaining copyright.
The Spanish Constitutional Court
is the only outlet that does have
the power to overturn the Supreme
Court, but these are in cases where
constitutional rights have been
breached.
A Supreme Court is, of course,
always meant to be the ultimate
authority on the law, de León says, but
in the case of the Spanish Court, the
sheer volume of cases was affecting its
ability to issue rulings on a detailed
and timely basis. And years of appeals
had created a sizeable backlog.
“If you look at the statistics, the
Supreme Court had more than 10,000
cases to deal with back in 2000,” he
says. “Such a large number of cases
meant that it was very expensive to
run the Court and also a slow process
for matters to reach a conclusion.”
The decision was made to amend the
law in 2011 to restrict the type of case
that can be filed in the Supreme Court.
A wave of reforms was brought in
to establish which cases can be heard
to help lighten the load and reduce the
spiralling costs.
Tightening the rules
“The Procedural Act has 21 sections on
the rules of appeal,” de León explains.
“In terms of civil cases, only those
of particular significance – valued at
more than €600,000 – can be heard.
Claimants must also be very
clear on the reasons for their appeal
because the Court only considers the
application of the law rather than the
facts of individual cases.”
The Court has taken further steps
to dissuade pointless appeals. The
42 • IBERIAN LAWYER • January / February 2014
process has now become much more
expensive for the participants, who
have to pay higher court fees to be
heard.
In the case of a corporate entity,
it can pay up to €10,000 while
individuals can pay up to €2,000.
“These additional costs are on top
of the solicitors’ fees and Spain has
the ‘loser pays’ model, so if a party
loses a case, that unsuccessful party
may end up being liable for both legal
bills,” says de León.
“Therefore adding a further €10,000
for the extra courts costs makes
parties more reserved than they used
to be in terms of legal action.”
The changes have meant that both
law firms and clients have also had
to alter their approach because it has
become a challenge to gain access to
the Court.
A change in approach
“We have to be honest with clients
and they must know that it is
extremely difficult to get an appeal
heard in the Supreme Court,” de León
says.
“If we do not get the decision we
wanted in the junior courts, we all
must think very hard about whether
the case meets the ‘application of
law’ criteria while clients also have
to be aware of the increased costs in
pursuing action in the Supreme Court.”
The data suggests that the reforms
are working to dissuade pointless
appeals.
The Supreme Court issued 792 civil
judgements last year, says de León,
but rejected more than 2,000 appeals.
He also expects that the timeframe for
cases to reduced dramatically – under
the previous system appeals could
drag on for five or six years.
“The number of appeals has
dropped radically while the global
economic crisis has also reduced
the desire to undertake expensive
litigation,” de León concludes.
“As solicitors, we know that the
barriers to access are very high now
and that the vast majority of appeals
will be rejected by the Supreme
Court.”
www.iberianlawyer.com