SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Amparo Arbáizar, Arbáizar Abogados
1. Divorce 1.1 Grounds, Timeline, Service and Process The grounds for divorce are the same for all mar - riages and same-sex marriages. Civil partner - ships are not considered marriages in Spanish family law, and their status is not regulated in the Spanish Civil Code or at a national level. Several autonomous communities in Spain have established their own specific laws regarding civil partnerships, including provisions for a part - nership register. These communities are: • Andalucía;
“No-fault” divorce Spain is a “no-fault” divorce jurisdiction. There are neither grounds for divorce nor a required period of separation. One or both parties can issue separation/divorce proceedings three months after the marriage. These three months will not be required in cases where there is a danger to the petitioner or the children. The timescale for a first-instance divorce decree is approximately a year, although it is very dif - ferent from court to court. The appeal may take about one year. If any party requests a psycho - logical forensic report via the court, the time - scale will be longer because forensic psycholo - gists are overloaded with work. Uncontested divorce proceedings are much quicker: between two and six months to obtain a Divorce Absolute. Each court’s head of the court administration ( Letrado de la Administración de Justicia ) is responsible for the service of documents and other acts of communication. Once a party has filed a divorce petition, the court will admit it and issue divorce proceedings, ordering service upon the other party. A court’s agent will serve the other party at his residence in person. Service by a particular method is also possible. The petitioner can request the court that his pri - vate court’s clerk (procurator) personally serve Spain is a party to the Hague Convention on the service abroad of judicial documents signed on 15 November 1965. A form must be filled out and sent to the Spanish Central Authority with the divorce petition and documents. The Central Authority forwards the document to the Dean the divorce petition. Hague convention
• Aragón; • Asturias;
• the Balearic Islands; • the Basque Country; • the Canary Islands; • Castilla-La Mancha; • Castilla y León; • Extremadura; • Galicia; • Madrid; and • Valencia.
In contrast, Catalonia only offers municipal reg - isters for civil partnerships, and the existence of a partnership is verified through an authentic or notarial deed. Each autonomous community regulates the reg - ister in a different way, and the effects of reg - istration range from being simply declarative to having practical equivalence with marriage. Some autonomous communities do not provide for such a regional register.
312 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook