SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Amparo Arbáizar, Arbáizar Abogados
Article 22 quáter (c) of the Spanish Law on Judi - cial Power rules the international jurisdiction of the Spanish courts in matters of matrimonial property regimes. Spain retains the residual jurisdiction in matters of matrimonial property regimes when: • both parties are habitually resident in Spain at the time the proceedings are issued; • Spain was the last matrimonial habitual residence, and one of the spouses still lives there; and • Spain is the respondent’s habitual residence. • It is impossible to apply to stay proceedings to pursue financial proceedings in a foreign jurisdiction. The court can hear financial claims in Spain after a foreign divorce. First, the foreign divorce must be recognised by the Spanish courts. The finan - cial claim must be related to immovable assets situated within the Spanish jurisdiction upon which the foreign judge did not have jurisdic - tion to rule. It might also consist of liquidating a Spanish property regime before the Spanish courts if it was not decided in the foreign divorce decree. This is not commonplace. 2.2 Service and Process The service requirements in financial proceed - ings are the same as in any other civil proceed - ings. Each court’s head of the court administra - tion ( Letrado de la Administración de Justicia ) is responsible for the service of documents and other acts of communication. After a party has filed a financial petition, the court will admit it and issue financial 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 the divorce petition. 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 Judge ( Juzgado Decano ) of the Courts of First Instance within the judicial territory ( partido judi - cial ) where the document is to be served. This court office is competent for distributing the dif - ferent proceedings (including service of docu - ments) among the judicial authorities that fall under its jurisdiction. Although a different form of service is not pro - hibited in Spanish domestic law in principle, the Central Authority does not usually receive a special request by the applicant for service by a particular method. Between member states of the European Union, Regulation 2020/1784 of 25 November 2020 on the service in the member states of judicial and extrajudicial documents in civil or commercial matters (recast) is applicable. The financial orders on divorce are spousal and child maintenance and the use of the matrimo - nial home in the child’s best interests. The pro - ceedings can take about one year for the first- instance court order and another year for the appeal at the Higher Court. Spouses can issue court proceedings to liqui - date the matrimonial property regime with the divorce petition or after the divorce decree has been rendered. There are two parts to the liqui - dation of the matrimonial property regime pro - ceedings:
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