A common occurrence in Spain is that a non-resident, who has been arrested in Spain and then freed on remand, misses a court date. Normally this is because of problems relating to communicating the court dates to defendants who live abroad, difficulties in travelling to Spain to appear in the court proceedings etc.
In those cases, the non-resident often does not know what to do upon his return to Spain. There is also the ever-present fear that if they did happen to return, what would be the consequences of having missed a court date in Spain? In a situation like this it is always very useful to contact a lawyer with expertise in criminal law who can handle the situation.
Basically, when a non-resident misses a court date there can be two situations as a result: either that the court has issued an arrest warrant against the non-resident to imprison him until the trial or – if he was only accused of a minor crime – that the trial has taken place in his absence, with the non-resident being sentenced without having taken part in the trial.
In both situations, it is obvious that the best thing is to contact a lawyer who can resolve the situation by requesting that the Court lift the arrest warrant - if one was issued - or organising a postponement of the court date if it has not taken place yet.
The lawyer can also file a petition for an invalidation of the trial if it took already place and the non-resident was not notified, make an appeal etc. It is very important to mention that only serious professional lawyers with long expertise in criminal law are normally able to resolve these situations successfully. A wrong decision in this matter can have very serious results for the non-resident.
