How long a criminal case takes, and why
This simulator estimates how long a criminal case may take from the type of proceeding and the stage the case has reached. The ranges it returns are those usually seen in the courts, not statutory deadlines: a fast-track trial is resolved in days or weeks; a minor-offence trial in 2 to 6 months from the complaint; an abbreviated proceeding in 1.5 to 3 years on average; and a sumario for the most serious offences, or a jury trial, in 2 to 4 years or more.
The statutory limit on the investigation is fixed: article 324 LECrim provides that the judicial investigation shall be conducted within a maximum of twelve months from the opening of the case and that, if before it expires it becomes clear that it cannot be completed, the judge may grant successive extensions of six months or less, by an order setting out in reasoned terms the causes of the delay and the steps still outstanding. That period confines the investigation, but not the rest of the proceedings.
The least visible stretch is the intermediate stage: the prosecution and defence pleadings and the transfer of the file to the trial court take three to twelve months without a single new investigative step. Afterwards, six to twelve further months usually pass between admission of the pleadings and the setting of a hearing date. Pre-trial custody changes that dynamic: article 528 LECrim requires every authority involved in the proceedings to keep custody as short as possible, and article 504.2 LECrim caps it at one year — where the offence carries a custodial penalty of three years or less — or two years where it is higher, with a single extension.
Where the delay becomes extraordinary and undue, is not attributable to the accused and is out of proportion to the complexity of the case, the mitigating circumstance of article 21.6 CP comes into play; it can even be treated as highly qualified and reduce the sentence by one or two degrees. It is the only legal consequence the law attaches to delay, which is why periods of inactivity should be documented as they occur.
The result is indicative. It is not adjusted by province or judicial district: the workload of the particular court does matter — above all for the hearing date — but this simulator holds no caseload data by territory and does not invent any. The real duration depends on the number of defendants, the expert evidence outstanding, any letters rogatory and the court’s schedule.