Article 800 Spanish Criminal Procedure Act: fast-track: opening and pleadings

1. Where the duty judge has ordered this procedure to continue, they shall in the same act hear the Public Prosecutor and the parties appearing so that they state whether trial should be opened or the case dismissed and, where appropriate, request or confirm their requests on precautionary measures. In any event, if the Public Prosecutor and the private prosecutor, if any, seek dismissal, the judge shall proceed under Article 782. Where the Public Prosecutor or the private prosecution seek the opening of trial, the duty judge shall proceed under Article 783(1), ruling by order as appropriate. Where the opening of trial is ordered, the judge shall issue a reasoned order orally, which shall be documented and shall not be open to any appeal.

2. Once trial is opened, if no private prosecution has been constituted, the Public Prosecutor shall immediately file the accusation in writing or make it orally. The accused, in view of the accusation, may in the same act enter a guilty plea under the following article. Otherwise, they shall immediately file their defence in writing or make it orally, the clerk of the duty court then summoning the parties for trial without further formality.

If the accused requests a period to file the written defence, the judge shall set it prudentially within the following five days, having regard to the circumstances of the alleged act and the other data revealed by the investigation, the court clerk summoning the parties for trial and serving the accused and, where appropriate, the civil respondent with notice to file their pleadings before the competent trial court.

3. The Council of the Judiciary, in accordance with Article 110 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary, shall issue the regulations needed to order, in coordination with the Public Prosecutor, the scheduling of trials by duty courts before the criminal courts.

Citations proposed by the Public Prosecutor shall also be ordered, the court clerk carrying out in the act those that are possible, without prejudice to the trial court’s decision on the admission of evidence.

4. If a private prosecution has been constituted and has sought the opening of trial, and the duty judge has so ordered, the judge shall summon it and the Public Prosecutor in the act to file their pleadings within a non-extendable period of no more than two days. Once filed before the same court, the judge shall proceed immediately under paragraph 2.

5. If the Public Prosecutor does not file the accusation in time, the judge shall require the superior prosecutor to file it within two days; if the superior also fails to do so, it shall be understood that no opening of trial is sought and that dismissal without prejudice is deemed appropriate.

6. Once the defence pleading is received or the period for it has lapsed, the trial court shall proceed under Article 785(1), save as regards the scheduling and citations already carried out.

7. In any event, the parties may ask the duty court, which shall so order, to summon the witnesses or experts they intend to propose for trial, without prejudice to the trial court’s decision on the admission of evidence.

Working translation prepared by Société Juridique from the consolidated Spanish text published by the Official State Gazette. It has no official status: the only authoritative version is the Spanish original, available at the Official State Gazette and reproduced verbatim in our Spanish-language entry for this provision. Source: Royal Decree of 14 September 1882 approving the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act.