Family law

Parentage determines who a person's legal parents are, and on it depend the person's surnames, parental authority, maintenance and succession rights. The Catalan Civil Code distinguishes parentage by nature, which includes that of children born through assisted reproduction techniques with the consent of the mother's partner, from parentage by adoption. All parentage produces the same civil effects, without prejudice to those specific to adoption.

We advise on the recognition of a child, which may be made before the registrar of the “Registro Civil”, the Civil Register, in a will or codicil or in a public deed, and on the requirements that make it effective. A father may recognise paternity from the age of fourteen and a mother may recognise maternity once the birth has been proved, whatever her age, although a person making the recognition who is an unemancipated minor needs the court's approval. If the child is of full age or emancipated, the recognition requires the child's consent and, if the child is a minor and is not recognised within the period for registering the birth, court approval.

We also act in court actions concerning parentage. An action to claim parentage allows a paternity or maternity that is not on record to be declared, and an action to challenge parentage allows one that is legally on record to be set aside where it does not match biological reality, unless the parent whose parentage is challenged consented to the assisted reproduction. In these proceedings biological testing is usually decisive. Where paternity or maternity is claimed and the defendant refuses without justification to undergo such testing, the court may declare it provided that there is other evidence pointing to it. Actions to challenge parentage are generally subject to a two-year time limit which, depending on who brings the action, runs from the birth, from the discovery of the evidence or from the child's coming of age, so it is best not to let time slip by.

Parental authority is the set of duties and powers that parents have in respect of their minor children. It is always exercised in the children's interest and, as a general rule, by both parents jointly. We advise on its content, on the acts that each parent may perform alone, such as acts of ordinary administration or urgent acts, and on those that require the agreement of both.

Where the parents cannot agree on an important decision concerning the child, such as the choice of school, medical treatment or a trip abroad, either of them may apply to the court for the power to decide to be given to one of them. If the disagreements recur, the court may also divide the functions of parental authority between them for a maximum period of two years. We prepare and argue these applications, and we also assist in the mediation to which the law allows recourse in such cases.

Parents administer their minor children's property, but acts of particular significance, such as selling or charging a property belonging to the child, waiving a claim or repudiating an inheritance due to the child, require court authorisation. In Catalonia that authorisation can be replaced by the consent, given in a public deed, of the child himself or herself, if at least sixteen years old, or of the child's two closest relatives. We handle those authorisations and consents so that the act serves the minor's interest and has the safeguards the law requires.

Children are entitled to maintain relationships with their grandparents, their brothers and sisters and other persons close to them, and parents may only prevent this if there is just cause. We defend that right when the relationship is broken off, including on behalf of grandparents who wish to keep in contact with their grandchildren. We also act in proceedings for deprivation of parental authority, which the court may order where a parent seriously or repeatedly fails to fulfil his or her duties, and in proceedings for its restoration, once the cause that led to the deprivation has ceased.

We assist families at every stage of adoption, from the declaration of suitability and the administrative procedure to the making of the adoption by the court, and also in intercountry adoption and in the recognition in Spain of adoptions made abroad.

We have acted successfully in the adoption of adults, which the Catalan Civil Code only allows if the adoptee, being of full age or emancipated, has lived continuously with the adopter since before the age of fourteen, or has been in pre-adoptive foster care for at least the six months immediately preceding the attainment of full age or emancipation, and in both cases has continued to live with the adopter without interruption. It is the route by which, once that child is already an adult, the person who has brought him or her up as their own can also become, in law, his or her father or mother. The scope of that last requirement is not settled. In a matter conducted by this firm, the “Audiencia Provincial” of Barcelona, the provincial appeal court, held that uninterrupted cohabitation until the age of majority is sufficient, without requiring it to continue thereafter.

Family foster care allows a child who cannot live with his or her parents to be looked after by another person or family, including the child's own relatives. In Catalonia it may be simple (that is, temporary), permanent, or pre-adoptive as a step prior to adoption. We advise foster families and birth families on their rights, on arrangements for visits and contact and on the transition from foster care to adoption.

An adopted person is entitled, once of full age or emancipated, to know the identity of his or her biological parents. We advise the adopted person on exercising that right, which does not alter the adoptive parentage.

Where a child lacks the basic necessities for his or her development or suffers ill-treatment or abuse, and the child's protection requires removal from the family, the administration of the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Catalan government) may declare the child to be in a situation of abandonment (“desamparo”) and assume guardianship, which suspends parental authority. We act for parents and members of the extended family who oppose that declaration before the court, within the two-month period laid down by the “Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil”, Spain's Civil Procedure Act, and in applications to have it set aside when the circumstances that gave rise to it change substantially.

We also advise on the guardianship of minors who are not under their parents' authority, on the appointment of a guardian that parents may make in a public deed, will or codicil in case their minor children are left without anyone to exercise parental authority, on the appointment by the court of a special representative (“defensa judicial”) where the minor's interests conflict with those of the persons who represent the minor, and on emancipation.

Since 2021 a person can no longer be declared legally incapacitated. The State-wide reform made by the “Ley 8/2021” —Law 8/2021— and, in Catalonia, the “Decreto ley 19/2021” —Catalan Decree-Law 19/2021— replaced incapacitation and the guardianship of adults with support measures that respect the person's will and preferences. In Catalonia, the main one is assistance (“asistencia”), which may be put in place before a notary or by the court and whose scope is tailored to what the person needs.

The “Ley 13/2026, de 3 de agosto” —Catalan Law 13/2026 of 3 August—, which will come into force on 4 February 2027, replaces the provisional regime of Decree-Law 19/2021 with a complete set of rules on support in the Catalan Civil Code. It distinguishes formalised from non-formalised support, regulates assistance in the forms of accompaniment, cooperation and representation, and strengthens preventive powers of attorney and the safeguards against abuse.

We help clients grant preventive powers of attorney, which allow a person to decide today who will act on his or her behalf if in the future he or she is unable to do so, and we deal with the setting up, review and accountability of support measures. We also act in the review of guardianships and curatorships established before the reform and in the disputes that arise when the person providing support acts in his or her own interest.

The closest relatives are obliged to provide one another with maintenance (“alimentos”), that is, what is needed to live, when one of them cannot meet his or her needs from his or her own means. In Catalonia the obligation extends, among others, to parents and children, to grandparents and grandchildren and to brothers and sisters, although adult brothers and sisters without a disability are only entitled to what is necessary for subsistence.

It is common for children to have to look after an elderly father or mother who cannot support themselves from their own resources, or for that burden not to be shared equally among brothers and sisters. We advise on who is obliged, in what order and in what proportion according to each person's resources, and we claim maintenance when it is not provided voluntarily. It is best to do so promptly, because maintenance is only owed from the time it is claimed, whether in or out of court, and not for any earlier period.