Lawyers in Santa Coloma de Gramenet
Ajuridic is a Barcelona firm that regularly works on Santa Coloma de Gramenet matters: Policia Local fines, the municipal Low Emission Zone, immigration, family, inheritance, accidents and dismissals. The office is in El Clot, on the same metro line 1 whose terminus is Fondo, and it appears before the Tribunal de Instancia de Santa Coloma de Gramenet and before the Barcelona courts that deal with the matters not heard there.
Free first consultation · Carrer del Freser, 104 · El Clot (Sant Martí), Barcelona · We advise in Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic (Arabic by prior appointment); Filipino on request, booking an appointment in advance.
Why a firm in El Clot for a Santa Coloma matter
Santa Coloma has courts of its own and they are good ones. The reason for calling a Barcelona firm is not that we cover half of Spain from here, but two specific and verifiable things.
The first is that the Santa Coloma judicial district is one of the smallest in the area: a single municipality and a single judicial section. The Ministry of Justice's official map assigns it a single municipality, 7.1 km² and six judicial units, and the directory of the Consejo General del Poder Judicial gives all six the same name: «Sección Civil y de Instrucción del Tribunal de Instancia de Santa Coloma de Gramenet», posts 1 to 6, all at Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18. There is no separate Family section, and no Criminal, Employment, Commercial or Administrative section: by law those jurisdictions operate at provincial level and are heard in Barcelona, at the Ciutat de la Justícia, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 111. A dismissal, an appeal against a fine that has exhausted the administrative route, or a criminal trial takes a Santa Coloma resident to Barcelona in any event, whoever is handling it.
The second is the actual distance. The office is at Carrer del Freser, 104, a short walk from the Navas and Clot stops, which are on the same metro line 1 whose terminus is Fondo, in Santa Coloma: eight and nine stops, with no change. That makes possible what really matters when a deadline is looming: meeting in person with the file in front of you without losing half a morning.
And one more thing, said plainly: Ajuridic has no office in Santa Coloma. Its single address is Carrer del Freser, 104, in El Clot. What does happen is that, when there is a hearing at the Santa Coloma courts, it is the lawyer who travels, not the client. The ICAB, which she is registered with, has a branch in the court building itself, at Passeig de la Salzereda, 16-18, first floor, open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 2 pm, with the working facilities a lawyer needs between hearings. It is not an Ajuridic office and does not replace one: it belongs to the Bar and serves its members.
The principal is Noemí Ampurdanés Parés, a solicitor registered with the ICAB under no. 22359, with over thirty years in practice. You can see her professional profile at noemiampurdanes.com. When the matter calls for it — an expert report, a valuation, court representation — Ajuridic draws on its network of notaries, procuradores (court agents) and specialist solicitors.
No step can guarantee a result
What can be promised is that the whole file is read before anything is said, and that if there is nothing to argue we say so straight away. The first consultation is free of charge and, in many cases, serves to rule out an appeal that would get nowhere.
Where each matter ends up
Santa Coloma de Gramenet is the head of a judicial district of its own, and its district consists of the city alone: it does not include Badalona or Sant Adrià, which have their own. Since the reform brought in by Ley Orgánica 1/2025 the former courts became Sections of the Tribunal de Instancia, so many notifications now arrive under a different name from the one people remember.
| Type of matter | Court | Where it is |
|---|---|---|
| Civil claims, contracts, evictions, inheritance | Sección Civil y de Instrucción del Tribunal de Instancia de Santa Coloma de Gramenet | Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18 · Santa Coloma |
| Divorce, child arrangements, maintenance, mental capacity | The same section: there is no separate Family section | Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18 · Santa Coloma |
| Criminal complaints, criminal investigations, out-of-hours court | The same section, acting as investigating court, and the territorial section of the Public Prosecutor's Office | Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18 · Santa Coloma |
| Violence against women | Today in Santa Coloma; from 1 November 2027, the Violence against Women Section of the Tribunal de Instancia de Badalona | Salzereda, 15-18 today · Prim, 32-40 · Badalona afterwards |
| Births, marriages, deaths, nationality | General Civil Registry Office of Santa Coloma de Gramenet | Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18 · Santa Coloma |
| Dismissals and employment claims | Employment Section (province-wide) | Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 111 · Barcelona |
| Appeals against public authorities | Administrative Section (province-wide) | Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 111 · Barcelona |
| Insolvency, companies, unfair competition | Commercial Section (province-wide) | Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 111 · Barcelona |
| Criminal trials and appeals | Criminal Section and Barcelona Provincial Court | Gran Via, 111 and Passeig de Lluís Companys, 14-16 · Barcelona |
A single court building, and almost everything is inside it
Unlike other cities in the Barcelonès, in Santa Coloma there is no need to pick the right building: Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18 brings together the section's six posts, the General Civil Registry Office, the territorial section of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the shared services and the judicial district's citizen service office. In the same building, on the first floor, there is also the branch of the Barcelona Bar association, and a Legal Guidance Service point operates there which the ICAB publishes as open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 2 pm.
What changes on 1 November 2027
Real Decreto 559/2026, of 8 July, extends in its article 11 the jurisdiction of the Violence against Women Section of the Tribunal de Instancia de Badalona to the Santa Coloma de Gramenet judicial district, and its third final provision sets 1 November 2027 as the effective date for the groupings in that article that have no date of their own, this one among them. From then on, violence against women matters from Santa Coloma will be heard in Badalona, at Carrer Prim, 32-40. It is a change of city, not of name, and it is worth bearing in mind in any proceedings that will still be live on that date.
What changes when the matter is in Santa Coloma
The same practice areas, with the part that in Santa Coloma is dealt with somewhere else, under another name or before another authority.
Fines and local authority law
In Santa Coloma the force is the Policia Local, not a guàrdia urbana, and the file is managed by the Diputació's ORGT under delegation. The decision, on the other hand, is taken by the Mayor's Office. Three names for a single piece of paper.
Fines and penaltiesImmigration law
In Catalonia the arraigo and housing reports are signed by the Generalitat, but the draft is made by the council where you are registered on the padrón. In Santa Coloma they are processed at the CIAPE, and no minimum period of registration can be required.
Immigration lawRoad traffic accidents
The civil claim is heard in the Santa Coloma section, and if there are injuries and criminal proceedings the investigation is here too; but the criminal trial is held in Barcelona, because Santa Coloma has no Criminal Section.
Road traffic accidentsFamily
Santa Coloma has no Family section of its own: divorces, custody and maintenance are heard by the same Civil and Investigating Section, on the Salzereda. And the Civil Code of Catalonia applies, with separation of property as the default matrimonial regime.
Family lawWills, probate and inheritance
An inheritance starts with paperwork: the death certificate is requested from the General Civil Registry Office, which in Santa Coloma is inside the court building, not the City Council. In Catalonia, moreover, its own Civil Code applies.
Wills, probate and inheritanceEmployment
A dismissal in Santa Coloma is claimed in Barcelona: the employment sections operate at provincial level and are at Gran Via, 111. Dismissal time limits are among the shortest in the whole of Spanish law.
Employment lawMedical negligence
Against a public hospital the claim is one of responsabilidad patrimonial and ends up, if litigation is needed, before the administrative courts in Barcelona; against a private one, in the civil courts of Santa Coloma. The first thing is the complete medical records.
Medical negligenceCivil liability
Falls in the street, damp between neighbours, damage from building work. If the City Council is the one liable, the route is a claim for responsabilidad patrimonial, and here you first have to check whether the service is provided by the municipal company Gramepark.
Civil liabilityProperty and tenancies
Sales and purchases, arras (earnest-money deposits), hidden defects and tenancies. Civil proceedings are heard on the Salzereda, and properties are divided between the two Land Registries at Passeig de Llorenç Serra, 4.
Property lawHow the penalty file works in Santa Coloma
It is the matter most people call a lawyer about, and the one that most often goes wrong on its own. Santa Coloma has a circuit of its own, and the division of roles is not the one people assume.
First: who issued the ticket
In Santa Coloma the municipal force is called the Policia Local, not a guàrdia urbana, and the City Council procedure says so in its own title: «Al·legacions o recursos contra multes de trànsit imposades per la Policia Local». That channel is the one for municipal penalty notices. If the notice was issued by the Servei Català de Trànsit or by the Mossos d'Esquadra on a road under the Generalitat's authority, the submission is filed with that authority and not with the City Council. So the first thing to look at in the notification is which authority issued it: a faultless submission filed with the wrong one does not stop the clock running with the right one.
Second: the one who processes, the one who collects and the one who decides are three different bodies
This is Santa Coloma's peculiarity, and it is not a bureaucratic detail. The City Council states that it keeps the management and inspection of property tax, business activity tax and plusvalía in its own Tax Management Service, at Plaça Manent, but that it has delegated to the Organisme de Gestió Tributària (ORGT) of the Diputació de Barcelona the management and inspection of vehicle tax, building works tax and traffic fines, as well as collection in the voluntary period and by enforcement of almost everything, penalties included. The ORGT has an office open in Santa Coloma, at Carrer Vistalegre, 17, by appointment.
And yet the one who decides is not the ORGT: the body itself states that the authority competent to decide submissions and issue the penalty decision is the mayor, or the person they delegate to, and that the recurso de reposición is lodged with the Mayor's Office. The municipal procedure sheet confirms it from the other side: what arrives at home when the submissions are decided is «el trasllat del decret de resolució», a copy of the decision decree. So a plusvalía is argued with the City Council, the fine file is consulted and paid at the ORGT, and the decision is signed by the Mayor's Office by decree. Knowing which of the three each submission goes to is half the battle.
Third: making submissions does not stop the collection
The municipal procedure sheet warns of it in these words: «la presentació d'al·legacions no paralitza el procés recaptatori de la sanció» — making submissions does not halt the collection process for the penalty. In practice that means the collection procedure can run its course — and the enforcement order can arrive — while the submissions are awaiting a decision. There are two threads at once and both have to be dealt with: the penalty thread, where it is argued whether the fine is correct, and the collection thread, where it is argued when and how it is collected.
Where to file the submission on the last day of the time limit
The municipal procedure sheet offers only two channels: filing it in person at the Oficina d'Informació i Atenció Ciutadana at Plaça de la Vila, 1, or by post to that same address. For the electronic route there are two alternatives that are published: the generic application form on the municipal electronic register and the ORGT's own channel, which accepts submissions and appeals for traffic infringements. It is best to decide before the last day, not on it.
That said, the proceedings always follow the same order, and each step has its own time limit.
The proceedings, in order, and the time limit for each stage
The time limits that follow are those published today by Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council and by the body that manages its fines. The specific notification prevails over any summary.
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Read the notification and find out who signs it
Which authority issued it, who reported it, which rule is relied on — the traffic act, the municipal traffic by-law or the Low Emission Zone one —, how long there is and what appeal is available. Without those five points you are making submissions blind.
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Decide between paying at a reduced rate and making representations
They are mutually exclusive routes. The body that manages Santa Coloma's fines states that payment at a reduced rate can be made within twenty calendar days from the date of the infringement, and that such payment means waiving the right to make submissions, ending the procedure with no need for an express decision and exhausting the administrative route.
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If someone else was driving, identify them
It is a procedure with a time limit of its own: twenty calendar days from notification of the penalty notice. Failing to identify the driver truthfully is a separate and worse infringement, which the body itself describes as very serious and carrying a fine of up to three times that of the original infringement.
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Representations with evidence
Twenty calendar days from notification of the penalty notice, and this is the moment to produce the evidence: photographs, the calibration certificate for the measuring device, the officer's report, witnesses. Whatever is not requested here is very hard to recover later.
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Recurso de reposición (application for reconsideration) to the Mayor's Office
One month from receipt of the penalty decision. The municipal sheet adds the point most people overlook: once the period for a decision has passed without one being made, the appeal is deemed dismissed. If they do not reply, you have to assume it has been refused and act accordingly.
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Administrative court proceedings
Once the administrative route is exhausted, the courts remain, and for Santa Coloma those are in Barcelona, at Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 111. Before that we assess whether the matter justifies it: not every file is worth taking that far, and saying so is part of the job.
The Santa Coloma de Gramenet Low Emission Zone
Santa Coloma is not in the Barcelona Zona de Bajas Emisiones Rondes. It has one of its own, approved by by-law, and it works differently.
Let us start with what it is not. The ZBE Rondes of Barcelona covers, as published by the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona, the whole municipality of Barcelona apart from the industrial Zona Franca and the districts of Vallvidrera, el Tibidabo and les Planes, plus the municipalities of Sant Adrià de Besòs and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and part of Esplugues de Llobregat and Cornellà de Llobregat. Santa Coloma de Gramenet does not appear there. A ZBE Rondes penalty with a Santa Coloma number plate is perfectly possible — it is enough to have driven into Barcelona — but it comes from a different authority and a different rule.
What Santa Coloma has is a Low Emission Zone of its own. The by-law was definitively approved by the full council on 18 December 2025, its full text was published in the Butlletí Oficial de la Província de Barcelona of 16 February 2026 and, under its single final provision, it came into force the day after that publication. Annex 1 describes the area: «la totalitat del nucli urbà residencial de la ciutat», the whole residential urban core of the city, with an approximate extent of 4.2 km². Article 7 sets the hours: «tots els dies laborables, de dilluns a divendres, en horari de 7.00 a 20.00 hores», every working day, Monday to Friday, from 7.00 to 20.00. And annex 2 defines who is affected: vehicles with no distintivo ambiental from the date it came into force, and those with a B sticker from 1 January 2028.
The second transitional provision: the car registered here
It is the part that decides many files and appears in no summary. The by-law provides that the provisions of the penalty regime «no entraran en vigor per als vehicles que figurin donats d'alta al padró de l'impost de vehicles de tracció mecànica (IVTM) de l'Ajuntament de Santa Coloma de Gramenet, fins el 31 de desembre de 2027» — they will not come into force, for vehicles registered on the motor vehicle tax roll of Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council, until 31 December 2027. That is to say: the restriction exists for everyone from day one, but the penalty for breaching it is postponed, for vehicles on Santa Coloma's vehicle tax roll, until that date. Anyone coming from outside does not have that moratorium. And beware the easy reading: what is postponed is the penalty regime, not the prohibition.
Authorisations can be applied for after entering
Another point almost nobody uses. Article 11 of the by-law allows the access authorisation to be applied for up to twenty-four hours after the moment the zone was actually entered. And if the entry was due to a duly documented medical emergency, the time limit is three days, with an effect worth knowing: filing the application within that period automatically suspends the penalty proceedings until the final decision. Daily authorisations for occasional journeys are limited, however, to twenty-four calendar days per year and per vehicle.
Exemptions are not automatic
The by-law exempts from the restriction, among others, vehicles used to transport people with reduced mobility — including those belonging to holders with a degree of disability of 33 % or more who meet the mobility scale or hold a parking card, and those of their parents or guardians —, emergency and essential service vehicles and those carrying people with illnesses that affect their use of public transport. It also provides for authorisations for anyone showing income below a multiple of the IPREM that varies with the number of members of the family unit, and for self-employed people with at most five years left before the legal retirement age when the vehicle is a necessary tool of their activity. But all of them require registration in the Registre metropolità de vehicles estrangers i altres vehicles autoritzats run by the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona: without valid registration there, no exemption counts, even if the substantive requirements are met. Monitoring is carried out by automatic number plate recognition cameras.
As for the penalty, the by-law itself classifies as a serious infringement failure to comply with the zone's access, circulation and parking restrictions, by reference to the consolidated text of the Ley de Tráfico.
First of all, which municipality it was in
With a Low Emission Zone penalty in hand, before paying or appealing you have to look at two things: which municipality the notice was issued in and which rule it cites. The Barcelona ZBE Rondes and the Santa Coloma one are not the same, and they are not appealed to the same place or on the same grounds.
The zona azul, the tow truck and the traffic by-law
The zona azul is run by a municipal company, and it has rules of its own
Regulated parking in Santa Coloma is managed by Gramepark, a municipal company, on the full council's instructions since 1992. Its transparency portal publishes the details: hours «de dilluns a dissabte, de 9 a 14 hores i de 16 a 20 hores» — Monday to Saturday, from 9 to 14 and from 16 to 20 — with Sundays and public holidays out of service and the whole of August as well; a maximum parking time of an hour and a half; and twenty-three ticket machines for two hundred and six spaces, according to the figures the company itself publishes, as at September 2023.
What matters for anyone facing a penalty notice is that here the time limit is not the one for traffic fines. Gramepark states that anyone wishing to make submissions and produce evidence may do so within fifteen working days, by a written submission filed at the City Council's General Register, at Plaça de la Vila, and that the submission must state the date and number of the penalty notice, the vehicle registration number and the number of the officer issuing it. Missing any of those four details, the submission starts off lame.
The cancellation ticket: there are a few hours to undo it
Before considering an appeal it is worth checking whether the penalty notice can still be cancelled. Gramepark states that the penalty may be cancelled by paying a cancellation ticket, on the conditions set by the municipal traffic by-law in force, and that if the notice is a morning one it can be cancelled until 16:00, and if it is an afternoon one until 9 am the next day. It is the cheapest and quickest way out there is, and it is lost simply through not knowing it is there.
The tow truck and the pound, also Gramepark's
The same municipal company runs the municipal tow truck and the municipal vehicle pound, along with the short-stay, rented and concession car parks. It is worth remembering that the removal and the fine are two different things: paying the tow-truck charge does not close the penalty file, and each is challenged separately. If the vehicle was in the zona azul, moreover, the two time limits in the previous section overlap.
The rule being applied is not always the traffic act
Santa Coloma has an Ordenança municipal de circulació de vehicles i vianants in force, definitively approved in 2002 and amended several times since, most recently in 2021 — the amendment that began to regulate, among other things, personal mobility vehicles. Added to that is the Low Emission Zone by-law, from 2025. Before replying it is worth reading exactly which rule the penalty notice relies on: the municipal schedule of infringements does not always say what it is assumed to say.
Where each formality is dealt with
Addresses, opening hours and channels published on their own pages by Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council and the bodies working under delegation from it. It is worth checking them before going: they change with local holidays and in August.
OIAC and General Register
Plaça de la Vila, 1, entered through a separate side door of the main building. It is the general registry office. Published hours: 9 to 14.30 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and Wednesdays until 17.30. Service is preferably by appointment, but every day, from 9 to 10, people aged 65 or over and those who can show a recognised degree of disability are seen without an appointment.
Saturdays and time limits
The office's own service charter states it, and it decides more time limits than you would think: for the purposes of calculating time limits Saturday is a working day, but for the purposes of filing documents it is not, so if the deadline falls on a Saturday it moves to the next working day. It is not worth gambling on that day.
Municipal Tax Management
Plaça Manent, s/n. This is the service the City Council has kept for itself: property tax, the metropolitan levy, business activity tax, plusvalía and the charge for commercial and industrial waste. By appointment. It also acts as a Catastro (land registry) Information Point.
ORGT office
Carrer Vistalegre, 17, by appointment. It is the Diputació de Barcelona body which, under delegation, handles vehicle tax, building works tax and traffic fines, and collection in the voluntary period and by enforcement of almost all municipal items. The codes for consulting a fine file usually come from there.
Policia Local
Police station and headquarters at Carrer Sant Jordi, 40, and a service point in Fondo and Santa Rosa, at avinguda dels Banús, 97-99. Emergencies, 092. The Administrative Department that handles fines is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9 to 13.30, according to the force's service charter.
Courts, Civil Registry, ICAB and SOJ
Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18. The six posts of the Civil and Investigating Section, the General Civil Registry Office, the territorial Public Prosecutor's Office, the judicial district's citizen service office and, on the first floor, the branch of the Barcelona Bar association with its legal guidance point.
Land Registries
Both at Passeig de Llorenç Serra, 4: number 1 and number 2. One detail that wastes time in searches: in the official indexes of the registrars' body the municipality is spelt «Santa Coloma de Gramanet», with an «a». The relevant Commercial Register is the Barcelona one.
Gramepark
A municipal company. It manages the zona azul, the municipal tow truck, the municipal vehicle pound and the short-stay, rented and concession car parks. When the problem is parking, removal or a municipal car park, it is the company behind the service.
The reports are drafted by the City Council and signed by the Generalitat
In Catalonia the circuit is not the one explained on most websites, which copy the procedure from other regions. Here there are two authorities and an order that matters.
The instruction criteria published by the Direcció General de Migracions i Refugi say so plainly: the Generalitat is the only authority competent to issue and notify the reports that form part of immigration procedures, and drawing up the draft report falls to the council where the applicant is registered on the padrón . The City Council checks the documents, drafts the proposal and sends it through the EACAT platform (the Catalan inter-administration exchange platform); the Generalitat issues the report and notifies it to the person concerned. Both the municipal draft and the final report have a one-month time limit.
The same criteria set out the types, and it is worth using their names when applying: the informe de adecuación de la vivienda (housing suitability report) for family reunification, and the informe de esfuerzo de integración social (social integration effort report), which is a single report covering four situations — arraigo social, arraigo socioformativo (the training-based route), an unaccompanied minor reaching adulthood and renewal of the residence permit. The document itself warns that «en cap cas es tracta de quatre informes diferents»: these are in no case four different reports.
The City Council cannot require a minimum period of registration on the padrón
It is written in those words in the Generalitat's criteria: the council may not require a minimum period of registration on the padrón in the municipality as a condition for filing the application. It is one of those rules people do not know about just when they are most needed, and it is enough to invoke it if the counter says otherwise. Whether or not proof of remaining in Spain is required is another matter, and there the volante de empadronamiento (the certificate of registration as a resident) is the preferred document.
Where each thing is done in Santa Coloma
The City Council has a service of its own for this: the Centre d'Informació i Assessorament a Persones Estrangeres (CIAPE), at Carrer Pirineus, 2, inside the Centre Cívic Els Pins, which publishes hours of Monday to Thursday from 9.30 to 13.30 and Mondays also from 16 to 18, and which sees people by appointment only. The municipal appointment system also distinguishes, using these names, between «Estrangeria – Reagrupacions i arrelaments» and «Estrangeria – Renovació i confirmació del Padró».
Almost everything else depends on the padrón, and here there are two practical details. The registration and the change of address are handled exclusively by appointment, while the residence certificate and the cohabitation certificate can be applied for online, with or without a digital signature. And registration on the padrón of non-EU foreign nationals without permanent residence authorisation expires and has to be renewed: the City Council has a procedure of its own for this, and letting it lapse breaks the continuity of registration that has to be proved later.
For police documents there is no need to leave the city: the Policía Nacional has an issuing office at Carrer d'Irlanda, 67, included in the official list for the electronic DNI (the Spanish national identity card), open Monday to Friday from 9 to 14.30 and by appointment. The residence permit, by contrast, is not decided in Santa Coloma: in the whole province there is only one Oficina de Extranjería, with two addresses, both in Barcelona, at Passeig de Sant Joan, 189-193, and at Carrer de Múrcia, 42.
From Santa Coloma to Carrer del Freser, 104
The office is in El Camp de l'Arpa del Clot, in the Sant Martí district, on a street running off Rogent. From Santa Coloma it is reached by metro without changing trains.
By metro, with no changes
The metro's line 1 has its terminus at Fondo and two stations inside Santa Coloma — Fondo and Santa Coloma — according to the area of operation published by TMB. That same line 1 passes through Navas and through Clot, a short walk from the office: from Fondo it is eight stops to Navas and nine to Clot; from Santa Coloma station, seven and eight, without changing trains. On the way it passes through Sant Andreu, Fabra i Puig and La Sagrera.
The nearest station, with one change
The stop closest to the door is Camp de l'Arpa, which is on the line 5. Anyone who prefers it can leave the L1 at La Sagrera and take a single stop on the L5. The other network serving the city is the L9 nord, with six stations in Santa Coloma — Can Zam, Singuerlín, Església Major, Fondo, Santa Rosa and Can Peixauet — which connects with the L1 at Fondo.
Stops near the firm
- Camp de l'Arpa (L5), the nearest
- Clot (L1 and L2, and Rodalies R1 and R2)
- Navas (L1)
- La Sagrera (L1, L5, L9 nord and L10 nord)
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Address
Carrer del Freser, 104
El Clot · Sant Martí
08026 Barcelona - Telephone and WhatsApp 614 26 26 92
- Email [email protected]
- Languages Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic. Advice in Arabic requires a prior appointment.
Before you come, give us a ring
Visits are by appointment, and in many Santa Coloma matters the first conversation can be dealt with by telephone, by WhatsApp or by video call, with no need to travel. If the journey is worth making, that call is when we say which documents to bring.
Santa Coloma has no Rodalies station, no FGC station and no tram stop: the metro is the real connection. By bus, the routes linking the city with Barcelona go elsewhere — the B20 ends at Ronda de Sant Pere and the V33 goes to the Besòs and the Fòrum — not to Clot. If you come by car, the city has access to the B-20, the C-31 and the ring roads, but bear in mind that El Clot is inside the Barcelona Low Emission Zone and that on-street parking is regulated. Summer works change which sections are in service every year: it is worth looking at the TMB notices before setting off.
The questions we are asked most from Santa Coloma
Which courts does a Santa Coloma de Gramenet resident come under?
Santa Coloma de Gramenet is the head of a judicial district that it makes up on its own: the Ministry of Justice's official map assigns it a single municipality and six judicial units. The directory of the Consejo General del Poder Judicial names all six posts «Sección Civil y de Instrucción del Tribunal de Instancia de Santa Coloma de Gramenet», all at Passeig de la Salzereda, 15-18. There is no separate Family section, and no Criminal, Employment, Commercial or Administrative section: those jurisdictions operate at provincial level and are heard in Barcelona, at the Ciutat de la Justícia, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 111.
The Policia Local of Santa Coloma has fined me. Who is the appeal made to?
The municipal procedure is called, literally, «Al·legacions o recursos contra multes de trànsit imposades per la Policia Local», and the decision is taken by the Mayor's Office: the body that manages the municipality's fines states that the authority competent to decide submissions and issue the penalty decision is the mayor, or the person they delegate to, and that the recurso de reposición is lodged with the Mayor's Office. What arrives at home when the submissions are decided is a copy of the decision decree. If the notice was not issued by the Policia Local but by the Servei Català de Trànsit, the submission goes to that authority and not to the City Council.
Who manages Santa Coloma's fines, the City Council or the ORGT?
Both, which is why it causes confusion. The City Council states that it keeps the management and inspection of property tax, business activity tax and plusvalía in its own Tax Management Service, at Plaça Manent, and that it has delegated to the Organisme de Gestió Tributària of the Diputació de Barcelona the management and inspection of vehicle tax, building works tax and traffic fines, as well as collection in the voluntary period and by enforcement. The ORGT has an office at Carrer Vistalegre, 17, by appointment. The decision on the fine, on the other hand, is signed by the Mayor's Office by decree. And one warning published on the municipal procedure sheet: making submissions does not halt the collection process for the penalty.
Does Santa Coloma de Gramenet have a Low Emission Zone?
Yes, one of its own, and it is not part of the Barcelona Zona de Bajas Emisiones Rondes, which according to the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona covers the municipality of Barcelona with exceptions, Sant Adrià de Besòs, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and part of Esplugues and Cornellà. The Santa Coloma by-law was definitively approved by the full council on 18 December 2025, its full text was published in the Butlletí Oficial de la Província de Barcelona of 16 February 2026 and it came into force the following day. It covers the whole residential urban core, some 4.2 km², every working day from Monday to Friday from 7.00 to 20.00, and it affects vehicles with no distintivo ambiental (environmental sticker) and, from 1 January 2028, also those with a B sticker.
My car is registered in Santa Coloma. Can its Low Emission Zone fine me?
Not until 31 December 2027. The second transitional provision of the by-law states that the provisions of the penalty regime do not come into force, for vehicles registered on the motor vehicle tax roll of Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council, until that date. Two important qualifications: the restriction exists from day one for everyone, what is postponed is the penalty; and the moratorium does not extend to the Barcelona Zona de Bajas Emisiones Rondes, which is a different rule and a different authority. In addition, the exemptions and authorisations in the by-law require registration in the Registre metropolità de vehicles estrangers i altres vehicles autoritzats of the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona.
I have been given a penalty notice in the Santa Coloma zona azul. How long do I have?
Here the time limit is not the one for traffic fines. The municipal company Gramepark, which manages regulated parking, states that anyone wishing to make submissions and produce evidence may do so within fifteen working days, by a written submission filed at the City Council's General Register, at Plaça de la Vila, giving the date and number of the penalty notice, the vehicle registration number and the number of the officer issuing it. Before that it is worth checking whether the notice can still be cancelled with a cancellation ticket: Gramepark states that if it is a morning notice it can be cancelled until 16.00 and if it is an afternoon one until 9 am the next day.
I need an arraigo report. Is it applied for in Santa Coloma or in Barcelona?
Both, in that order. The instruction criteria of the Direcció General de Migracions i Refugi provide that the Generalitat is the only authority competent to issue and notify immigration reports, and that drawing up the draft report falls to the council where the person is registered on the padrón. In Santa Coloma that draft is processed at the Centre d'Informació i Assessorament a Persones Estrangeres (CIAPE), at Carrer Pirineus, 2, by appointment only. The same document makes clear that the council may not require a minimum period of registration on the padrón in order to make the application, and that both the municipal draft and the final report have a one-month time limit. The residence permit, on the other hand, is decided at the Oficina de Extranjería in Barcelona, which is the only one in the province.
Do I have to travel to Barcelona for the first consultation?
The first consultation can be dealt with by telephone, by WhatsApp or by video call, and is free of charge. If you prefer to come in person, the office is at Carrer del Freser 104, in El Clot, and works by prior appointment. Ajuridic works in Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic, the last of these by prior appointment.
Is there any free legal guidance service in Santa Coloma?
Yes. The Barcelona Bar association has a branch in Santa Coloma de Gramenet in the court building at Passeig de la Salzereda, first floor, and it publishes a Legal Guidance Service point at that same address, open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 2 pm. It is a free public in-person service that gives initial guidance. It is worth checking the days, the current opening hours and whether an appointment is needed before going.
Where to check the official information
- Taxes on the electronic register of Santa Coloma de Gramenet City Council: what the municipal Tax Management Service handles, what is delegated to the ORGT and the addresses and telephone numbers of the two offices.
- Oficina d'Informació i Atenció Ciutadana and online procedures of the City Council, for the general register, the opening hours, the appointment system and the procedure sheet for submissions and appeals against Policia Local fines.
- Traffic fines at the Organisme de Gestió Tributària of the Diputació de Barcelona, for the authority competent to decide, the time limits for submissions and for identifying the driver, and the effects of payment at a reduced rate.
- Zona de Bajas Emisiones of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and the full text of its by-law published in the Butlletí Oficial de la Província de Barcelona of 16 February 2026, for the area, the hours, the authorisations, the exemptions and the second transitional provision.
- Zona de Baixes Emissions Rondes de Barcelona, at the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona, for the municipalities it is made up of, and zbe.barcelona.
- Zona azul on the Gramepark transparency portal, for the hours, the spaces, the time limit for submissions and the cancellation ticket, and the municipal by-law on vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the Diputació's CIDO.
- Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, for the map of the Santa Coloma de Gramenet judicial district, and directory of judicial bodies of the Consejo General del Poder Judicial, for the official names of the sections and their address.
- Ley Orgánica 1/2025 (Spanish Organic Act 1/2025), on measures for the efficiency of the Public Justice Service, which turned the courts into Sections of the Tribunal de Instancia, and Real Decreto 559/2026, of 8 July, whose article 11 and third final provision move violence against women matters from the Santa Coloma judicial district to Badalona from 1 November 2027.
- Legal Guidance Service points and Il·lustre Col·legi de l'Advocacia de Barcelona, for the Santa Coloma de Gramenet branch and its opening hours.
- Colegio de Registradores, for the two Land Registries of Santa Coloma and their address, and Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, for the metro lines and stations.
Checked in August 2026 on the official pages linked. Municipal by-laws, tax by-laws and office opening hours change: the specific notification and the official source prevail over any summary.
The first thing is to know how much time is left
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Time limit checker
Eleven time limits covering fines, employment, damage claims and inheritance. Enter the start date and it shows the deadline for acting and how many days are left.
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The list of papers for six of the firm's procedures, tickable and printable, so you arrive at the first consultation with the file already checked.
Open the checklistAccident compensation
What the figure in a road traffic accident really depends on, why no calculator can get it right and what is worth gathering from day one.
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With the document in front of us we can say in a short time which authority issued it, how long is left and whether there are grounds to challenge it. The first consultation is free of charge. The office is at Carrer del Freser, 104, in El Clot, a direct metro journey from Santa Coloma.