Estimate the sentence resulting from a guilty plea in Spain and check whether that sentence may be suspended under Articles 80 et seq. of the Spanish Criminal Code. The tool applies the reduction of Article 801 of the Criminal Procedure Act for fast-track proceedings and the ordinary plea of Article 787.

How the reduction on a guilty plea works

Article 801 of the Criminal Procedure Act allows the defendant, in fast-track proceedings, to plead guilty before the duty court and obtain a reduction of one third of the sentence sought, provided the offence carries a prison sentence of up to five years or any other penalty not exceeding ten years, and provided the sentence, once reduced, does not exceed three years.

Outside that route, Article 787 permits a plea at the outset of the trial. There is no statutory reduction, and the benefit obtained results from negotiation with the prosecution, ordinarily between fifteen and twenty-five per cent of the sentence initially sought.

When a prison sentence may be suspended

Article 80(2) of the Criminal Code sets three cumulative requirements: that the offender be a first-time offender, that the sentence or the aggregate of sentences imposed does not exceed two years excluding the part relating to non-payment of a fine, and that the civil liability has been discharged.

Suspension is not automatic. The court weighs the circumstances of the offence, the personal circumstances of the offender, their conduct after the offence and the efforts made to make good the damage caused.

What the calculator does not take into account

• Aggregate sentencing under Article 76 of the Criminal Code where several offences are tried together.
• The exceptional grounds of Article 80(3), which allow suspension of sentences of up to two years where the offender is not a first-time offender, and of Article 80(5) for offenders dependent on drugs or alcohol.
• Substitution by expulsion under Article 89 for foreign nationals without legal residence.
• Mitigating circumstances not yet applied to the sentence sought, which may reduce it further before any plea reduction is calculated.

This tool provides an orientation estimate based on the general rules of the Spanish Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Act. It does not replace an individual assessment of the case file by a lawyer.