From what age is a minor criminally liable in Spain?

From the age of fourteen. Organic Law 5/2000 applies to those aged between fourteen and eighteen at the time of the offence. Below the age of fourteen there is no criminal liability: the file is closed and the case is referred to the public child protection authority, which adopts administrative protective measures rather than punitive ones. Age is always calculated as at the date of the offence, not the date of trial, so that someone who offended at seventeen is tried by the Juvenile Court even if they have already come of age.

Who investigates and who tries a minor's case?

The investigation is directed by the Public Prosecutor, who opens the file, carries out the investigative steps and decides whether to apply for the hearing to be opened. The trial and the enforcement stage fall to the Juvenile Court. Before reaching the hearing, the Prosecutor may decline to open a file in less serious matters without violence or intimidation where the minor has no previous record, under art. 18, or propose an out-of-court settlement through conciliation or reparation with the victim under art. 19, which results in the discontinuance of the file.

Are parents liable for what their child does?

Yes. Art. 61.3 of Organic Law 5/2000 establishes the joint and several civil liability of parents, guardians, foster carers and legal or de facto carers for the damage caused by the minor, irrespective of whether or not they were at fault. The Judge may moderate that liability where they show that they did not encourage the minor's conduct through intent or gross negligence. That is why the minor's defence and the family's civil position should be coordinated from the outset of the proceedings.

What happens when a minor is arrested?

The detention of a minor may not last more than twenty-four hours before release or before the minor is brought before the Public Prosecutor. Art. 17 requires that the minor be informed of their rights in comprehensible language, that the arrest be notified immediately to their parents or guardians and to the Public Prosecutor, and that the minor be held in suitable facilities separate from those used for adults. The minor is entitled to a private consultation with their lawyer before and after giving a statement, and the statement must be taken in the presence of the lawyer and of those exercising parental authority, guardianship or care.

Do you act outside Alicante?

Yes. We operate from Madrid and Alicante, and we act throughout Spain, including urgent assistance to detainees and proceedings with an international dimension.

What is the LIWARD methodology?

It is our own methodology —Legal Intelligence Warfare for Defense— which brings legal intelligence, financial and accounting analysis and digital forensic evidence together into a single litigation strategy. It makes it possible to anticipate the weaknesses of the prosecution case and to build the defence on technical evidence, not on legal argument alone.

Criminal Lawyer for Minors in Spain | Juvenile Defence

Criminal defence lawyer for minors

We do not merely argue cases here: we control consequences.

Defence of minors aged fourteen to eighteen under investigation for a criminal offence: assistance from the moment of arrest, representation before the investigating Public Prosecutor and before the Juvenile Court, and work alongside the family throughout the enforcement of the measure.

In juvenile reform proceedings it is not just an event that is in dispute: what is decided is the future course of an adolescent

Juvenile criminal proceedings are governed by their own rules. The investigation is directed by the Public Prosecutor, who orders the investigative steps and decides whether to apply for the hearing to be opened; the trial and the enforcement stage fall to the Juvenile Court, and throughout the process a technical team —psychologist, educator and social worker— intervenes, whose report carries as much weight as the evidence for the prosecution, if not more. The best interests of the child are the guiding criterion throughout the proceedings, so the measure is not chosen by equivalence with the sentence an adult would receive, but according to its educational suitability for that particular minor. That logic opens up lines of defence that do not exist in ordinary criminal jurisdiction: withdrawal by the Prosecutor, conciliation and reparation to the victim allow many files to be closed without any finding of responsibility. But those doors close quickly: once the technical team’s report has been issued and the hearing has been listed, the room for manoeuvre is far narrower. Legal intervention has to begin on the very day of the arrest or the summons, not afterwards.

The offences that most frequently reach the Juvenile Court

The legal classification remains that of the Spanish Criminal Code: the minor answers for the same offences as an adult, even though the legal consequence is a measure rather than a sentence. These are the categories of conduct that account for most reform files, together with the measure usually considered in each of them.

Arts. 147 and 148 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Bodily harm and fights between minors

Assaults in school, leisure or sporting settings, often filmed and circulated by the participants themselves. The video tends to be the main item of evidence, and also the means of establishing who started the assault, who merely happened to be present and whether there was a response to a prior attack.

Community service or supervised release; detention where weapons were used, where the minors acted as a group or where the outcome was serious

Arts. 178 to 183 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Offences against sexual freedom and integrity

Sexual assaults, acts between minors with an age gap and conduct involving children under the age of sixteen. These files carry the heaviest expert-evidence burden: credibility of the testimony, pre-constituted evidence from the victim and assessment of the psychosexual development of the person under investigation by the technical team.

Detention in a semi-open or closed regime with therapeutic content and subsequent supervised release; in the cases under art. 10.2, up to five or eight years depending on age

Arts. 237 and 242 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Robbery with violence or intimidation

Snatching of mobile phones, chains or backpacks involving a shove, a threat or the display of an object. The dividing line with theft lies in the intensity of the violence, and acting as a group decisively aggravates the applicable framework under art. 9.2 of the Act.

Supervised release or semi-open detention; closed detention of up to three years (14-15) or six years (16-17) in the case under art. 10.1

Arts. 234 and 238 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Theft and burglary

Shoplifting, entry into homes or vehicles and misappropriation at school. These are frequently minor incidents in which making good the damage and conciliation with the injured party allow the file to be closed without a hearing.

Out-of-court settlement under art. 19, socio-educational tasks or community service of up to one hundred hours

Arts. 197.7 and 264 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Cybercrime, sexting and distribution of intimate images

Forwarding intimate photographs or videos of classmates, access to other people’s accounts, identity impersonation and damage to computer systems. The defence requires verifying the chain of custody of the device and who actually had access to the handset at the time the messages were sent.

Supervised release with rules of conduct on the use of devices, socio-educational tasks and, in serious cases, semi-open detention

Arts. 172 ter and 173.1 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Bullying, harassment and degrading treatment

Repeated conduct involving humiliation in person or in messaging groups. What is decisive is the repetition and the position of dominance; the defence usually focuses on delimiting each individual contribution within a group dynamic that the police report presents as uniform.

Supervised release, socio-educational tasks and a ban on approaching or communicating with the victim

Arts. 153.2 and 173.2 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Child-to-parent violence

Assaults, threats or coercion by the minor against parents or siblings, often linked to substance use or an undiagnosed disorder. These are files in which the family itself reports the matter seeking help and needs to understand the consequences of what it is asking for.

Living with another person, family or educational group, therapeutic detention or outpatient treatment with supervised release

Arts. 263 and 557 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Criminal damage and public disorder

Graffiti, destruction of street or school property and disturbances at gatherings or sporting events. Everyone present tends to be charged equally, when liability requires proof of each individual’s material contribution to the outcome.

Reparation of the damage, community service or weekend detention

Arts. 379 and 384 of the Spanish Criminal Code

Road safety: driving without a licence and speeding

Driving mopeds or vehicles without ever having obtained a licence, over the alcohol limit or at a speed markedly above the limit. The specific measure provided for by the Act bears directly on the possibility of obtaining a licence in the future.

Disqualification from driving mopeds and vehicles or from obtaining a licence, together with socio-educational tasks

Overview of measures and durations

The measures under art. 7 of Organic Law 5/2000 are not ranked by the abstract seriousness of the act, but by their educational content. The general rule in art. 9.3 limits detention to two years, community service to one hundred hours and weekend detention to eight weekends; only where the offence is a serious offence, or a less serious one committed with violence, intimidation, grave risk to life or as part of a group, do the extended frameworks of art. 10 apply. The Judge may not impose a measure that is more severe or longer than the one requested by the Public Prosecutor or by the private prosecution.

Offence	Provision	Sentencing range	Key aggravating factor
Detention in a closed regimeResidence at the centre and all activities carried out within it	Art. 7.1.a of Organic Law 5/2000	General rule, up to two years. Art. 10.1: up to three years at fourteen or fifteen and up to six at sixteen or seventeen. Art. 10.2: from one to five years and from one to eight years, with subsequent supervised release of up to three or five years	Serious offence, violence or intimidation, grave risk to life or acting as part of a group
Semi-open and open detentionResidence at the centre with educational and work activities outside it	Arts. 7.1.b and 7.1.c of Organic Law 5/2000	The same time limits as closed detention according to the age bracket; the regime may be modified during enforcement	Family roots, continued schooling and favourable progress by the minor
Therapeutic detention and outpatient treatmentSpecialised care for addiction, mental disorder or altered perception	Arts. 7.1.d and 7.1.e of Organic Law 5/2000	Duration equivalent to that of ordinary detention; treatment usually continues afterwards under supervised release	Substance dependency or a disorder evidenced by the technical team or by a party-appointed expert
Attendance at a day centre and weekend detentionDaytime socio-educational activity or confinement at home or at the centre from Friday to Sunday	Arts. 7.1.f and 7.1.g of Organic Law 5/2000	Confinement of up to eight weekends as a general rule and in the case under art. 10.1.a, and up to sixteen weekends in the case under art. 10.1.b	Offences of medium seriousness with the family and school structure intact
Supervised release and restraining orderMonitoring by the open-regime team with mandatory rules of conduct	Arts. 7.1.h and 7.1.i of Organic Law 5/2000	Up to two years as a general rule; a mandatory complement to detention in the cases under art. 10.2, for a period of up to three or five years	Need for supervision and socio-educational support after detention, or protection of the victim
Living with another person, family or educational groupResidence with a household other than the family one, designated by the Judge	Art. 7.1.j of Organic Law 5/2000	A maximum of two years under the general rule in art. 9.3	Deteriorated family environment, absence of role models or serious conflict in the home
Community service and socio-educational tasksUnpaid activity of social interest or an individualised training programme	Arts. 7.1.k and 7.1.l of Organic Law 5/2000	Up to one hundred hours as a general rule; up to one hundred and fifty hours at fourteen or fifteen and two hundred at sixteen or seventeen under art. 10.1	They require the minor’s consent; common in property offences and criminal damage
Reprimand, disqualification from driving and absolute disqualificationReprimand by the Judge in a single act, measures depriving the minor of rights	Arts. 7.1.m, 7.1.n and 7.1.ñ of Organic Law 5/2000	Reprimand in a single act; disqualification from holding or obtaining a licence for the period set in the judgment; absolute disqualification of four to fifteen years over and above the duration of detention in terrorism offences under art. 10.3	Minor nature of the act and absence of a record, or the terrorist nature of the offence

Offence

Provision

Sentencing range

Key aggravating factor

Detention in a closed regimeResidence at the centre and all activities carried out within it

Art. 7.1.a of Organic Law 5/2000

General rule, up to two years. Art. 10.1: up to three years at fourteen or fifteen and up to six at sixteen or seventeen. Art. 10.2: from one to five years and from one to eight years, with subsequent supervised release of up to three or five years

Serious offence, violence or intimidation, grave risk to life or acting as part of a group

Semi-open and open detentionResidence at the centre with educational and work activities outside it

Arts. 7.1.b and 7.1.c of Organic Law 5/2000

The same time limits as closed detention according to the age bracket; the regime may be modified during enforcement

Family roots, continued schooling and favourable progress by the minor

Therapeutic detention and outpatient treatmentSpecialised care for addiction, mental disorder or altered perception

Arts. 7.1.d and 7.1.e of Organic Law 5/2000

Duration equivalent to that of ordinary detention; treatment usually continues afterwards under supervised release

Substance dependency or a disorder evidenced by the technical team or by a party-appointed expert

Attendance at a day centre and weekend detentionDaytime socio-educational activity or confinement at home or at the centre from Friday to Sunday

Arts. 7.1.f and 7.1.g of Organic Law 5/2000

Confinement of up to eight weekends as a general rule and in the case under art. 10.1.a, and up to sixteen weekends in the case under art. 10.1.b

Offences of medium seriousness with the family and school structure intact

Supervised release and restraining orderMonitoring by the open-regime team with mandatory rules of conduct

Arts. 7.1.h and 7.1.i of Organic Law 5/2000

Up to two years as a general rule; a mandatory complement to detention in the cases under art. 10.2, for a period of up to three or five years

Need for supervision and socio-educational support after detention, or protection of the victim

Living with another person, family or educational groupResidence with a household other than the family one, designated by the Judge

Art. 7.1.j of Organic Law 5/2000

A maximum of two years under the general rule in art. 9.3

Deteriorated family environment, absence of role models or serious conflict in the home

Community service and socio-educational tasksUnpaid activity of social interest or an individualised training programme

Arts. 7.1.k and 7.1.l of Organic Law 5/2000

Up to one hundred hours as a general rule; up to one hundred and fifty hours at fourteen or fifteen and two hundred at sixteen or seventeen under art. 10.1

They require the minor’s consent; common in property offences and criminal damage

Reprimand, disqualification from driving and absolute disqualificationReprimand by the Judge in a single act, measures depriving the minor of rights

Arts. 7.1.m, 7.1.n and 7.1.ñ of Organic Law 5/2000

Reprimand in a single act; disqualification from holding or obtaining a licence for the period set in the judgment; absolute disqualification of four to fifteen years over and above the duration of detention in terrorism offences under art. 10.3

Minor nature of the act and absence of a record, or the terrorist nature of the offence

Investigation by the Prosecutor, the technical team’s report and forensic analysis

The difference between supervised release and detention in a closed regime is rarely decided by the legal classification: it is decided in the interview with the technical team and during the arrest phase. The technical team’s report effectively determines the measure the Prosecutor will request, because it assesses the minor’s psychological, educational and family situation and proposes what it considers most appropriate to their best interests. Preparing that interview, providing school, medical or treatment reports and demonstrating that the family environment can sustain an open-regime measure is defence work, not a formality. To that must be added technical scrutiny of the evidence: photographic identifications of minors, statements taken without their parents present, mobile phone extractions without a chain of custody, or videos circulated on social media whose true authorship was never verified. Our job is to assist the minor from the first statement before the Prosecutor, to challenge whatever does not stand up, to negotiate where a guilty plea protects the minor and, where appropriate, to propose the conciliation or reparation under art. 19 before the file reaches the hearing.LIWARD Legal Intelligence Warfare for Defense—, our own methodology, which brings legal intelligence, case-law analytics, financial and accounting analysis and e-forensics together into a single litigation strategy. It is what sets us apart from conventional criminal defence.

Criminal defence lawyer for minors

In juvenile reform proceedings it is not just an event that is in dispute: what is decided is the future course of an adolescent

The offences that most frequently reach the Juvenile Court

Bodily harm and fights between minors

Offences against sexual freedom and integrity

Robbery with violence or intimidation

Theft and burglary

Cybercrime, sexting and distribution of intimate images

Bullying, harassment and degrading treatment

Child-to-parent violence

Criminal damage and public disorder

Road safety: driving without a licence and speeding

Overview of measures and durations

Investigation by the Prosecutor, the technical team’s report and forensic analysis

Legal intelligence

Financial and accounting analysis

Digital evidence · e-forensics

Litigation strategy

A strategy sustained across every stage

Arrest and investigation

Forensic analysis

Strategy and evidence

Trial and appeals

Every profile calls for a different defence

Companies

Directors and officers

Individuals under investigation

Victims · private prosecution

Related areas and services

Domestic and Gender Violence Defence Lawyer in Spain

English-Speaking Criminal Lawyer in Alicante

Sexual Offence Defence Lawyer in Spain

What you should know before the first consultation

There are decisions in juvenile proceedings that are taken only once, and the mistake cannot be undone

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