How to appeal a traffic fine in Spain: alegaciones, recurso and deadlines

What the fine is and how it works

Read the issuing authority and case number, not merely the DGT logo. Jurisdiction may lie with DGT, a municipality, an autonomous community with transferred powers or another road authority; file with the body named in the notice.

Draft the alegaciones

A resolución sancionadora is the administrative decision imposing the penalty. Alegaciones normally precede it; afterwards, an optional reconsideration appeal (recurso de reposición) or judicial review may be available.

Paying within 20 calendar days usually cuts the money penalty by 50% and ends the administrative procedure. It waives allegations and administrative appeal, not direct judicial review; the normal two-month court clock starts the day after payment. Statutory exclusions mean some offences receive no reduction.

A useful trap competitors often omit: an unopened DEV electronic notice is treated as rejected after 10 calendar days unless access was technically or materially impossible; a BOE notice is treated as served after 20 calendar days. No paper letter does not necessarily mean no deadline.

Who this applies to

• Anyone who received a DGT or municipal fine: speed (radar), parking, zona azul, camera, running a red light.
• The vehicle owner: you must identify the driver if someone else drove — failing to identify is a separate, larger fine.
• Those losing points (graves/muy graves).
• Those who did not get the notification in person but the fine surfaced in TESTRA/TEU/BOE.

What you are entitled to

• Access the full case file: report, images or video, officer material, service history and the identity of any measuring device.
• Offer relevant evidence and receive a reasoned decision. An officer report carries evidential weight but is rebuttable; refusal of evidence must be explained.
• Check the certificate and current metrological verification of the specific device. There is no universal “5/7% radar discount”: the applicable tolerance depends on device and measuring mode.
• Choose the reduction or the administrative contest, then assess reposición or court after a final decision. Reposición does not automatically suspend enforcement.

Deadlines that matter

• Alegaciones and evidence: 20 calendar days from the day after service; the 50% reduced-payment window normally runs in parallel.
• Where the vehicle was not stopped, a driver-identification request normally allows 20 calendar days. Supply verifiable details and the licence number; a driver outside the Spanish register may require a copy of authority to drive in Spain.
• Optional reposición: one month from the day after service of the final penalty decision. It does not suspend collection; a suspension request is deemed refused after one month without a response.
• Judicial review of an express final act is normally two months. Silence requires route-specific calculation under current case law; do not rely on the old blanket “six months” formula.
• Prescripción limits the offence: three months for minor and six for serious/very serious offences. Known procedural steps and certain identity enquiries interrupt it; a stoppage exceeding one month for reasons not attributable to you restarts the clock.
• Caducidad means this proceeding lapses because its maximum duration expired: the general traffic-sanction limit is one year. It differs from limitation, and a fresh proceeding may sometimes begin while the offence itself is not time-barred.
• After the money penalty becomes final, there is normally a last 15-calendar-day payment period. Then vía de apremio means tax-style compulsory recovery; the surcharge may be 5%, 10% or 20% by stage, and embargo means seizure of money or assets.

Evidence to keep

• Download the notice and full file; preserve the envelope, DEV/BOE records and a dated timeline of offence, service, procedural acts and inactivity.
• For camera or speed evidence, request original images, device identifier, certificate and current verification; check plate, lane, location, time, sign and applicable limit.
• For parking, signs or signals, use dated photographs, a site plan, receipts, resident authorisation, witnesses or app-failure evidence tied to the precise offence.
• For driver identification, provide verifiable particulars, any required foreign-licence copy and documents showing who held the vehicle. A bare “not me” is rarely enough.

How to appeal, step by step

• Identify the authority, case number, service method and date; check DEV and BOE where no paper notice arrived.
• Before paying, obtain the evidence and choose: 50% now or an administrative contest. Those administrative routes cannot be combined, although court review survives payment.
• Within 20 days file structured allegations: fact, legal or procedural defect, supporting proof and precise remedy. Keep the registration receipt.
• Answer any separate driver-identification demand fully and on time. Failure is itself a very serious offence, punished at twice or three times the original fine.
• After the decision, compare reposición with court. A lawyer is mandatory in court; a procurador is optional before a single-judge body and mandatory before a collegiate court.
• If recovery has started, review the narrow grounds against the enforcement act separately: it normally does not reopen whether the traffic offence occurred.

A real case: the named driver denied the trip — and the €1,200 fine was annulled

Common mistakes

• Paying at 50% and expecting ordinary allegations or reposición later: the administrative path has closed.
• Ignoring DEV/BOE or counting working days when the statute says 20 calendar days.
• Invoking a generic radar margin without the particular device certificate and governing metrology rule.
• Giving incomplete or unverifiable driver details: the separate fine can be twice or three times the original.
• Confusing prescripción with caducidad, or assuming reposición automatically freezes recovery.
• Arguing the merits only at the apremio stage, where grounds against enforcement are much narrower.

If the alegaciones are rejected

• Read the reasons and check whether your evidence was addressed. An unexplained refusal of relevant evidence can itself matter.
• Reposición is optional, normally one month and before the same body; facts or documents that could have been offered earlier are generally excluded.
• An express final act normally gives two months for court. Identify jurisdiction and representation first: abogado is compulsory; procurador depends on the court level.
• Do not estimate silence, suspension, limitation or lapse from memory. Build a dated service-and-action timeline because one event can alter the calculation.

Related guides

Common questions

Official sources