Enforcement of foreign judgements in Spain

The enforcement of foreign judgements in Spain is very common. If you have a Foreign Judgement or Court Order from you country against any person residing in Spain, you can enforce it directly in the Spanish Courts.

The European Union ensures that judgements obtained in one EU country can be recognized and enforced in any other EU country.

Therefore, if you obtained a Judgement in your favour against someone residing in Spain, you can directly enforce the Judgement in a Spanish Court.

For example, if you have a Judgement against a debtor who moved to Alicante, you will need to hire a lawyer in Spain. Once you have hired a lawyer, you will need to send the original Judgment and get an official translation of it. Your Spanish lawyer will send a European Judgement Enforcement Claim to Court, and the debtor will be served with the Enforcement Order in his residence address.

The Spanish Judge will order the enforcement directly without analyzing the case, as if the Judgement was issued by a Spanish Court.

To act in Spain against the debtor you only need the original Court Order (or  Judgment) that you want to enforce. In some cases, you also need a certificate from the court that issued the court order to prove its validity according to the European Regulations.

Once  the proceedings are started here in Spain, the assets of the debtor will be seized immediately and the Spanish Judge will not  revise the court order, which means that the debtor will not be able to oppose the seizure of his/her assets.