Enforcing a foreign judgment in Spain: realistic timelines

Winning a case abroad against someone with assets in Spain is half the job. The other half is making the Spanish courts recognise the judgment and then seize the assets, and both halves have their own timetable. These are the realistic timelines from twenty years of filings, not the ones in the brochure.

Recognition

Judgments from European Union courts are enforced almost directly under the Brussels regime, with no separate recognition stage. Judgments from the United Kingdom, the United States and most other countries need an exequatur application before a Spanish court of first instance. Uncontested applications take six to ten months; a contested one, with an appeal, can take two years. Arbitration awards under the New York Convention move faster, since the grounds for refusing them are narrow.

Enforcement

• Locating assets: bank accounts and property are found through court requests to registries and banks, usually within two months.

• Seizure of bank balances is immediate once ordered; property takes longer because it is sold at a judicial auction.

• The debtor can oppose enforcement on limited grounds, which adds three to six months if they do.

• Interest and costs are recoverable, and the Spanish court will fix them at the end.

What to do now

Send us the judgment and whatever you know about the debtor’s assets in Spain. We will tell you within a week whether recognition is likely, what it will cost, and whether the assets justify the exercise at all. Sometimes the honest answer is no, and we would rather say so now.