Checker of time limits for appealing and claiming
Enter the date of the notice, or the relevant starting date, and see how long there is to act and how many days are left. Eleven time limits covering municipal fines, employment, injury and inheritance, all taken from the pages of this same website. It is calculated in your browser and no data is sent anywhere.
The clock runs from notification, not from when you make up your mind
Time limits start running the day after the notice and do not stop because the matter is unjust or because documents are still being gathered. A good proportion of the penalties that end up final are final because nobody reacted in time. The sensible course is to check straight away, even if only to conclude that an appeal is not worth it.
Which procedure it is and when it counts from
This does not replace a solicitor, and the first consultation is free of charge
What comes out here is a guide based on the general time limits published on this same website. It does not know your file, or how you were notified, or whether anything interrupted the time limit. Do not file anything, or refrain from filing anything, on the strength of this page: what governs is the appeal notice at the foot of your notification. If it does not quite fit or you are pressed for time, call and we will look at it with the papers in front of us.
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Your browser has it disabled or blocked. Below is the table with the same time limits the calculation applies, and you can always call us on 614 26 26 92.
The eleven time limits and their source
They are all published on the practice area pages of this website. They are a general reference: what the notice in each file says always governs, since that is what states which appeal is available, to whom and within what time.
| Step | General time limit | Counts from | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Representations in penalty proceedings | As stated in the notice itself | The notice | Fines and local authority law |
| Optional recurso de reposición | 1 month | The day after the notice | Fines and local authority law |
| Appeal to a higher authority | 1 month | The day after the notice | Fines and local authority law |
| Administrative court appeal | 2 months | Notice of the act that exhausts the administrative route | Fines and local authority law |
| Challenging a dismissal, a disciplinary penalty or a change to terms | 20 working days | The effective date of the dismissal | Employment law |
| Claim for unpaid sums | 1 year | The date the sum should have been paid | Employment law |
| Injuries in a road traffic accident | 1 year | The date the final extent of the injuries is known | Road traffic accidents |
| Medical negligence in the public health service | 1 year | Recovery or the establishing of the permanent effects | Medical negligence |
| Non-contractual civil liability | 1 year | The date the injured party learned of the loss | Civil liability |
| Contractual civil liability | 5 years | The breach | Civil liability |
| Impuesto de Sucesiones and plusvalía municipal | 6 months, extendable by a further 6 | The death | Wills, probate and inheritance |
Two things the tool cannot know, and it says so
Public holidays. In the twenty-working-day period for a dismissal, Saturdays and Sundays are deducted but not the national, regional and local public holidays, which depend on each calendar. Public holidays only lengthen the period, never shorten it: the date shown will never be later than the real one, so it acts as a safety margin.
A last day that is not a working day. Where the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the period is carried over to the next working day. That is not done here, deliberately: the date you see is the most restrictive of the possible ones, which is the only one that cannot work against you.
Paying at the reduced rate or appealing
While the time limit for appealing runs, so does the offer of a reduction for prompt payment, and the two routes are mutually exclusive. It is worth knowing what each involves before the calendar decides for you.
- Paying at the reduced rate brings the proceedings to an end and generally means giving up the right to appeal through the administrative route. It is cheaper, but the penalty becomes final and takes effect. With traffic offences it also does not avoid the loss of licence points where the offence carries them.
- Appealing means losing the reduction and opens up the possibility of the penalty being quashed. To decide, you look at the amount, at whether licence points or closure of a business are involved, and at whether the notice has defects that can be used.
- Doing nothing is not the third option it appears to be: it lets the time limits run until the penalty becomes final and passes to enforced collection, with the reduction already lost and no appeal available.
The full course of a penalty file is explained in the guide to administrative fines in Barcelona, and the differences between recurso de reposición, recurso de alzada and the contentious-administrative route are in the guide to administrative procedures.
Bring the notice in and we will look at it
With the notice in front of us, we can say in a short time whether there are grounds for appealing, how much time is really left and what documents would have to be gathered. If the time limit is about to expire, better to call than to write.