How to appeal a traffic fine in Spain (DGT)

Appealing means challenging the penalty notice before the DGT itself when you consider that the penalty is not lawful: you were not the offender, there is a defect in the notification or in the procedure, or the speed camera did not meet the required conditions.

Before you appeal, consider early payment (pronto pago). Within the 20 calendar days following notification you can pay the fine with a 50% discount. If you pay, you are deemed to waive the right to file written submissions (alegaciones) and the procedure ends.

Appealing makes sense when there is a real ground of defence. Filing written submissions and appeals before the DGT is free of charge. Managora assesses whether your case is viable before filing anything, and tells you the price of the service on the service page for the DGT fine appeal (recurso de multa DGT).

20 calendar days from the day after notification: this is the deadline both to pay with the 50% discount and to file written submissions. You cannot do both: if you pay, you waive the right to make submissions.

1 month from notification of the penalty decision: this is the deadline for the recurso de reposición (an internal review appeal before the DGT itself), which is optional (you can either file it or go straight to court).

2 months: this is the deadline for the contencioso-administrativo appeal before the court, once the administrative route has been exhausted.

Bear in mind that deadlines counted in calendar days include Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, whereas the 1 month period runs from date to date.

Defective notification: the notice was not validly served, it was sent to the wrong address, or it was published on the official notice board or in the official gazette without first exhausting personal service methods.

Expiry of the procedure (caducidad): more than 12 months have passed since the file was opened without the penalty decision being issued and notified. In that case the file must be closed.

Limitation (prescripción): the infringement was not validly notified within 3 months (minor infringements) or 6 months (serious and very serious ones) from the date the events took place.

Speed camera or cinemómetro (speed measuring device): a device without a valid metrological verification, badly positioned, without the required advance signage, or without the legal margin of error applied. You can also raise defects in the penalty notice form (boletín de denuncia), such as a missing identification of the officer, of the provision infringed or of the facts. Success depends on each specific case.

The registered keeper of the vehicle has a legal duty to give the DGT the identity of the driver responsible when the DGT requires it (article 11 of the Ley de Tráfico, the Spanish Traffic Act). The deadline is 20 calendar days from the day after the request.

Identification is compulsory whenever the DGT requires it. In practice the request is usually issued for infringements that carry a deduction of points, but the duty to identify exists in every case in which the authority asks for it. You must provide the driver's name, surnames, document number (DNI, the Spanish national ID card, passport or residence permit) and address.

Failing to identify the driver, or doing so with false or insufficient details, is in itself a very serious infringement. The fine for failing to identify is double the fine set for the original infringement if that one was minor, and triple if it was serious or very serious, and it does not qualify for the 50% reduction.

If you were not driving at the time of the infringement, identify the driver within the deadline. Managora files this identification for you through the service page for identifying the driver responsible before the DGT.

If the DGT rejects your written submissions and, where applicable, your recurso de reposición (or does not decide it within 1 month, which counts as a rejection by administrative silence), you can still go to court.

The deadline is 2 months from notification of the act that exhausts the administrative route, or from the date on which the recurso de reposición is deemed rejected. The claim is filed before the Juzgado de lo Contencioso-Administrativo (the administrative court).

Managora prepares the claim and files it for you. You do not have to look for anyone or travel anywhere: we handle the whole procedure.

You send us the penalty notice or the decision and the file number. We review the deadlines, the seriousness of the infringement and the possible grounds for annulment.

We draft the written submissions or the appeal that applies and file it in the DGT electronic office (sede electrónica, the DGT online portal) on your behalf. We keep you informed of every reply.

Where appropriate, we continue with the recurso de reposición and, if it comes to that, with the contencioso-administrativo court route. You can check the current price of the service on the service page.