The Abbreviated Criminal Procedure in Spain (Arts. 757-793 LECrim)

Most criminal cases heard in Spain do not follow the old committal procedure but the abbreviated procedure of Articles 757 to 793 of the Criminal Procedure Act (LECrim). Understanding its architecture matters, because each stage has its own deadline and its own defence opportunity which, once missed, does not come back.

You are under investigation: the scope of Art. 757 LECrim

One clarification first: the abbreviated procedure is not a second-class process or a watered-down trial. It is the ordinary route for the widest band of offences and it keeps the same guarantees.

Art. 757 LECrim sets the boundary: it applies to the trial of offences punishable by a custodial sentence of no more than nine years, or by any other penalty of a different nature, single, joint or alternative, regardless of its amount or duration. The reference point is the penalty set in the abstract, not the one finally imposed; that threshold is analysed in the article devoted to Art. 757 LECrim.

Art. 760 LECrim also deals with mistakes of route in both directions, without going back further than necessary.

Which court investigates and which one tries the case

After the judicial reorganisation brought in by Organic Law 1/2025, Art. 14 LECrim assigns the investigation to the Investigation Section of the Court of First Instance for the place of the offence, or to the sections with jurisdiction over violence against women or violence against children and adolescents where the offence falls within their remit. Many LECrim provisions still use the wording «investigating judge», but the body is now a section of that court. For the trial itself, jurisdiction splits as follows:

• Criminal Section of the Court of First Instance: offences punishable by a custodial sentence of no more than five years, or by a fine of any amount, or by any other penalty not exceeding ten years.
• Provincial Court: all other cases, that is, the band running from more than five up to nine years of imprisonment.

Preliminary proceedings: the investigation (Arts. 774-778 LECrim)

All judicial steps concerning offences under Art. 757 are recorded as preliminary proceedings (Art. 774 LECrim). Art. 777.1 defines their purpose: to establish the nature and circumstances of the offence, the persons who took part in it and the court with jurisdiction to try it. The milestones that weigh most on the defence are these:

• First appearance (Art. 775 LECrim). The person under investigation is informed of the alleged facts and of their rights, in particular those in Art. 118. They are required to give an address in Spain for service, with an express warning that service at that address will allow the trial to be held in their absence in the cases provided by law. Before and after making a statement they may confer privately with their lawyer. If the subject matter of the investigation changes materially, they must be informed promptly (Art. 775.2).
• Advance and pre-constituted evidence (Arts. 777.2 and 777.3). Where there is reasonable fear that an item of evidence cannot be taken at trial, it is taken at once, securing the right to challenge it and recording it in audiovisual form. For the evidence to count, its playback or reading must be requested at trial under Art. 730.

The time limit for this stage is the one in Art. 324 LECrim, explained in this article on investigation deadlines.

The order under Art. 779 LECrim: five possible outcomes

Once the investigative steps are complete, the investigation closes with an order that may only take one of these five decisions (Art. 779.1 LECrim):

• 1. Dismissal, where the act is not a criminal offence or its commission is not sufficiently established. If the act may be an offence but no perpetrator is known, provisional dismissal and filing of the case.
• 2. Referral to the competent court where the act is a minor offence outside its remit.
• 3. Declining jurisdiction in favour of the military courts, or transfer to the juvenile prosecutor where all those investigated are minors.
• 4. Conversion into an abbreviated procedure, identifying the punishable acts and the person to whom they are attributed. It cannot be ordered without having taken that person's statement under Art. 775.
• 5. Early guilty plea, where the person under investigation, assisted by a lawyer, has admitted the facts before the court and those facts fall within the limits of Art. 801.

The fourth outcome is what practitioners call the «conversion order» and works as the counterpart of the committal order in ordinary proceedings. The wider map of stages is set out in the article on Spanish criminal procedure.

Intermediate stage: charges, dismissal and opening of the trial

Once conversion is ordered, the file is served on the public prosecutor and on any private prosecutors so that within a common period of ten days, extendable by ten more (Art. 781.2), they may request the opening of the trial, dismissal or, exceptionally, further investigative steps (Art. 780 LECrim). The charging submission must contain what Art. 650 lists, by reference from Art. 781.1: facts, legal classification, participation, circumstances and penalties, together with the compensation sought or its basis, the parties liable in damages and the evidence proposed.

If all prosecuting parties seek dismissal, Art. 782 requires the court to order it, except where the defences in points 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 of Art. 20 CP are at stake, in which case the case continues so that security measures and civil liability can be decided. Art. 783 governs the opening of the trial: it is ordered unless the act is not an offence or there are no reasonable indications of criminal conduct. The same order rules on interim measures and designates the trial court. No appeal lies against that order, except as regards custody status.

Once the trial is opened, Art. 784 LECrim summons the accused to appear with a lawyer and a court representative within three days and gives a common period of ten days to file the defence submission. If none is filed, the accused is deemed to contest the charges and the case goes on. The lapse of that period has a severe effect: afterwards, the defence may only propose evidence brought to the hearing itself. That is why the defence submission is not a form-filling exercise.

Preliminary hearing and guilty plea (Art. 785 LECrim)

Once the trial court receives the file, Art. 785 LECrim requires it to convene a preliminary hearing, with compulsory attendance of the accused and of the defence lawyer. There the parties may address the possibility of a guilty plea, the jurisdiction of the court, any breach of fundamental rights, preliminary objections, nullity of proceedings and the content, purpose or nullity of the evidence proposed. What is decided cannot be appealed: the party may lodge a formal objection and raise the point again in the appeal against the judgment.

And it is here, at that same hearing, that the guilty plea of the abbreviated procedure is entered (Art. 785.4 onwards), not at a later stage. Its essential rules:

• The plea is entered to the most serious charging submission, or to a new one filed at the hearing, which may not refer to different facts or contain a more serious classification.
• The court gives judgment on the plea if the accepted classification is correct and the penalty follows from it; otherwise it asks the prosecution to reconsider and, failing correction, orders the trial to be held.
• The accused is personally informed of the consequences; if there is any doubt as to whether the plea was given freely, the trial is held.
• The judgment is delivered orally; if nobody appeals, it becomes final at that moment and the court rules on suspension or substitution of the sentence and on the requirements and sentence computation.
• It may only be appealed where the requirements or terms of the plea were not respected.

The advantages and drawbacks of that decision are discussed in the article on plea agreements.

Trial and judgment

Without a plea, the trial is listed. Art. 787.1 LECrim requires the attendance of the accused and of the defence lawyer, but allows a trial in absentia where service was properly effected, the defence is heard, the most serious penalty sought does not exceed two years of custody — or six years if it is of a different nature — and the total custodial penalties sought do not exceed five years.

The hearing opens with the reading of the charging and defence submissions (Art. 787.2). Evidence is taken in consecutive sessions and an exceptional adjournment is capped at thirty days (Art. 788.1). If, in its final submissions, the prosecution changes the legal classification or alleges greater participation or aggravating circumstances, the defence may request an adjournment of up to ten days (Art. 788.5). Judgment is given within five days of the end of the hearing (Art. 789.1) and may not impose a heavier penalty than the one sought, nor convict of a different offence where that entails a different protected interest or a substantial change in the facts tried (Art. 789.3).

Appeals against the judgment (Arts. 790-793 LECrim)

The judgment of the Criminal Section may be appealed to the Provincial Court, and that of the Central Criminal Court to the Criminal Division of the National High Court, within ten days of service (Art. 790.1). The grounds are limited: breach of procedural rules and guarantees, error in the assessment of the evidence, and infringement of rules of law.

Two rules are worth remembering. From Art. 790.2: a prosecution alleging error in the assessment of the evidence in order to quash an acquittal or increase a sentence must show that the reasoning on the facts was insufficient or irrational, that it manifestly departed from common experience, or that it omitted any reasoning on relevant evidence. And from Art. 792.2: the appeal judgment cannot convict a person acquitted at first instance or increase the sentence on that basis; its alternative is to quash and send the case back.

Against the appeal judgment, cassation lies only in the cases of Art. 847 (Art. 792.4); deadlines are set out in the article on criminal appeals. A person convicted in absentia has the annulment remedy of Art. 793, with the same deadline and effects as an appeal, running from the moment it is shown that they learned of the judgment.

Differences from ordinary committal and fast-track proceedings

• Compared with ordinary committal proceedings. Those are reserved for offences punishable by more than nine years of custody, and there the charge is formalised through a committal order (Art. 384 LECrim), open to review and appeal. In the abbreviated procedure there is no committal, only the order under Art. 779.1.4, and there is no review by the trial court of the closing of the investigation (Arts. 622 to 633).
• Compared with fast-track trials. The fast-track trial (Arts. 795 to 801) is a variant of the abbreviated procedure, not a separate one: Art. 795.4 refers back to it. It requires a police report, a person arrested or summoned before the duty court, a custodial penalty not exceeding five years and, in addition, a flagrant offence, an offence from the list in Art. 795.1.2 or an investigation expected to be straightforward. Its practical consequence is the guilty plea of Art. 801 LECrim, with a one-third reduction of the penalty sought.

What the defence looks at

• The route. Checking that the penalty set in the abstract fits Art. 757 and that the trial court named in the opening order is the right one under Art. 14 LECrim.
• The content of the order under Art. 779.1.4. It must define facts and persons: what is not in it cannot be sustained later in the charges.
• The defence submission. Proposing all the evidence: the lapse under Art. 784.1 excludes whatever was not requested in time.
• The preliminary hearing. This is the moment to raise nullity and objections to evidence, with an express formal objection so the point survives into the appeal.

If you have an open case following the abbreviated procedure and want to understand which stage it is at and what defence room is left at each step, it is worth reviewing it before the next deadline lapses. You can contact us at +34 91 078 65 74.