Criminal Lawyers in Certificate Forgery

The offence of certificate forgery, regulated in Arts. 397 to 399 of the Spanish Criminal Code, constitutes a special modality of document forgery with a singularly attenuated punitive regime compared to the public, official and commercial documents of Art. 392 CP. It protects the social credibility of certificates: declarations of facts issued by practitioners (doctors, technicians, certified professionals) or individuals with probative value lower than an official document but capable of generating relevant legal effects. Consolidated Supreme Court case-law has precisified the contours of the type clearly distinguishing between certificate (accrediting a specific fact: illness, academic qualifications, service provision) and official document (accrediting a right or identity: ID, passport, medical prescription, official academic record). As criminal lawyers specialising in document forgery, we work on the legal qualification to reconduct, when appropriate, charges under Art. 392 CP to the much more lenient regime of Art. 397 CP.

The typical modalities are varied and distributed across three articles. Art. 397 CP sanctions the practitioner (doctor, certified technician, civil servant in the exercise of functions) who issues false certification. Art. 398 CP regulates the authority or public official who issues false certification of merit or services, behaviour, circumstances or other relevant data. Art. 399 CP covers two cases: the individual who forges a certificate of those mentioned in the preceding articles (Art. 399.1) and the knowing use of the false certificate by any person (Art. 399.2). The most recurring cases are false medical certificates of sick leave or aptitude, inflated academic certificates and diplomas, employer certificates for unemployment benefits, technical certificates of habitability, work completion or energy efficiency issued without real inspection, and criminal record, census or vaccination certificates.

The penalties are singularly attenuated in this regime, justifying the importance of legal qualification. For the practitioner issuing the false certificate (Art. 397 CP): fine of 3 to 12 months, without mandatory prison. For the authority or public official (Art. 398 CP): fine of 3 to 6 months and suspension from employment or public office of 6 months to 2 years. For the individual who forges a certificate (Art. 399.1 CP): fine of 3 to 6 months. For knowing use of false certification (Art. 399.2 CP): same penalties. In all cases, penalties rise to their upper half when one of the circumstances of Art. 392.2 CP concurs. However, when the certificate is instrumentally used to commit other offences (fraud by benefit defraudation, professional intrusion under Art. 403 CP, academic fraud in public examinations), the real concurrence may significantly raise the criminal response.

The technical defence articulates several complementary lines. First, the typical reconduction from official document to certificate: this is the fundamental battle, because the certificate has only a fine penalty while the official document (Art. 392 CP) carries 6 months to 3 years' prison; we defend that the questioned document lacks the quality of official as it does not accredit a substantive right or emanate from a public officer with full certifying power. Second, the mistake of fact on the falsity: the client received the certificate without knowing its false nature and used it in good faith. Third, the atypicality of ideological falsehood by individual when it is a simple lie without material alteration of the medium. Fourth, in practitioner cases, the negotiation of compliance without professional suspension: the real impact of Art. 397 CP is not the fine, but the derived professional disqualification or suspension that may paralyse the medical, technical or academic career of the convicted for months or years. Fifth, the statute of limitations: given the lightness of the penalty, the prescription periods are short (1 year for minor offences, 5 years for less serious offences).

In current forensic practice we observe sustained growth in certificate-forgery proceedings, especially linked to COVID-19 and vaccination certificates, manipulated criminal-record certificates to access sensitive jobs, false academic certificates for public examinations, technical certificates of energy efficiency issued without real inspection by architects and engineers, and forged employer certificates for SEPE benefits. Organic Law 1/2025 on Justice Service Efficiency, Act 4/2025 on Professional Public Function, EU Regulation eIDAS2 (2024/1183) on European digital identity and recent Supreme Court case-law on document forgery in public-examination contexts have hardened the evidentiary framework. At Alonso Sala, we tackle each file with handwriting, documentoscopic and forensic computer experts to challenge the proof of falsity and articulate the most favourable legal qualification to the client, whether practitioner or individual.