Criminal Lawyers in Serious Injuries

Serious injuries are the most severely punished offences against physical integrity in the Spanish Criminal Code after homicide and are regulated in Arts. 149 and 150 of the Spanish Criminal Code. The protected legal interest is physical, bodily and psychic integrity in its most essential manifestations: the loss or uselessness of organs, limbs, senses, reproductive capacity, or the causation of permanent deformities. Settled Supreme Court case-law has shaped the typical concepts —"principal" vs. "non-principal" limb or organ, loss of "sense", "deformity" and "sterility"— around their objective functional and aesthetic impact, not on mere appearance. The border between Art. 149 (6-12 years' prison) and Art. 150 (3-6 years) is usually decided through expert evidence.

Forms (Arts. 149-150 CP)

The Code distinguishes several modalities. Art. 149 CP covers the loss or uselessness of a principal organ or limb (eye, hand, foot, arm, leg), the loss or uselessness of a sense (sight, hearing), impotence or sterility, serious deformity, or a serious somatic or psychic illness; prison sentence of 6 to 12 years. Art. 150 covers the loss or uselessness of a non-principal organ or limb (a finger other than the thumb, spleen, a phalanx) or the causation of simple deformity (visible permanent scar altering image without that severe intensity); prison sentence of 3 to 6 years. Additionally, the aggravated types of Art. 148 (use of weapons or dangerous means, cruelty, particularly vulnerable victim, gender violence) allow the court to raise basic Art. 147.1 injuries to 2-5 years where those circumstances concur; it is discretionary (the penalty 'may' be imposed). Genital mutilation (Art. 149.2) is a separate offence with the same penalty of 6 to 12 years and, where the victim is a minor or a person with a disability requiring special protection, the court may add special disqualification from parental authority for 4 to 10 years.

Penalties (Arts. 149-150 CP)

Penalties are notably severe. Art. 149 imposes prison from 6 to 12 years, placing the sentence above the 2-year threshold for suspension (Art. 80 CP): unless an incomplete defence, a highly qualified mitigating factor or another reduction by degrees brings the sentence to 2 years or less, effective imprisonment is unavoidable absent a pardon. Art. 150 imposes prison from 3 to 6 years, with the same limit: without a reduction by degrees, suspension is not possible. Civil liability is quantified under the Law 35/2015 scale and can exceed 100,000-200,000€ where there is great invalidity, severe aesthetic damage or serious permanent sequelae with total or absolute permanent disability. Accessory consequences may include disqualification from parental authority or guardianship when the victim is a partner or descendant and that right was directly related to the offence (Arts. 55 and 56 CP), restraining order, and for foreigners substitutive expulsion under Art. 89 CP when the penalty exceeds one year of prison.

Defence Strategy

Technical defence articulates several recurring axes. First, the distinction between animus laedendi and animus necandi: when the prosecution tries to elevate the case to attempted homicide (Art. 138 in relation to Art. 62 CP: the penalty is lowered by one or two degrees, normally 5-10 years, or 2 years and 6 months to 5 years if lowered two degrees), defence must evidence that the body part, means and force only revealed intent to injure; case-law looks to the harmful potential of the means, the body area and voluntary desistance. Second, reclassification between Arts. 149 and 150: the forensic expert evidence on the "principal" or "non-principal" character of the organ and on the "gravity" of the deformity is decisive (3-6 years less). Third, pre-existing or supervening concause: a previous illness of the victim unknown to the author or defective medical care may break the objective attribution of the most serious result. Fourth, incomplete defences or highly qualified mitigating factors: proportional self-defence (Art. 20.4), insurmountable fear, partial intoxication, psychic disturbance, reparation with early consignment (Art. 21.5).

Current Forensic Practice

In current forensic practice we observe a sustained tightening of the criminal treatment of serious injuries linked to knife fights, group attacks, gender violence and acid or chemical attacks. At Alonso Sala, our criminal lawyers in serious injuries intervene from the legal assistance at the police station —where a rushed statement can compromise years of defence— articulate proprietary medical and forensic expertise, challenge medical reports when they overstate the gravity, manage reparation mitigating factors through early judicial consignment and, where appropriate, raise evidentiary nullities or substantive defences. We handle each file with the diligence required in a field where the minimum penalty is three years and where a technical reclassification can mark the difference between suspension and a decade in prison.