How can I tell if a court summons is genuine?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Be wary of any summons that reaches you only by email, text message or WhatsApp with a link or an attachment, especially if it asks you for money, passwords or bank details. Courts communicate by registered post, by delivery to your home or through the courts' online portals (“sedes judiciales electrónicas”), their official offices on the internet. The email or text alert, where there is one, only tells you that you have a communication waiting on the portal and does not contain the summons. To check a summons, do not use the links or phone numbers in the message. Look up the court's phone number yourself on an official website and ask, quoting the case number. How genuine communications arrive A court communicates with you by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt, by delivery to your home or electronically through the courts' online portal. The electronic route is only used with those who are required to use it, such as companies, or with those who have chosen it. In that case, the court may send an alert to the email address or mobile number you have given, but that alert is not the notification. It only tells you that you have a communication waiting, which you open by logging in to the portal with your digital certificate or another official identification system. A genuine communication states clearly that it is a court document and identifies the court and the case number. It also says why you are being summoned and on what date or within what time limit you must act. Warning signs These are typical signs of a fake summons: It reaches you only by email, text message or WhatsApp and contains the summons itself, instead of a simple alert that you have a communication on the portal. It contains a link to “view the summons” or a file that has to be downloaded, sometimes a compressed one. It asks you to pay a fine or a sum of money to avoid a trial, or asks for bank details or passwords. It rushes you or threatens you with immediate arrest or attachment of your assets. It does not say which specific court is sending it or give the case number, or the court it names does not exist. Since 2025, the old courts (“juzgados”) have been part of the first-instance courts (“tribunales de instancia”). That is why a genuine summons may come in the name of a first-instance court and one of its sections, such as the civil section, instead of in the name of a numbered court. How to check it Before replying or doing anything, check it yourself: Look up the court's phone number on an official website, for example in the directory of courts of the “Consejo General del Poder Judicial”, Spain's General Council of the Judiciary. Call and ask, quoting the case number. If you are a party to proceedings, log in to the courts' online portal or to “Carpeta Justicia”, the Ministry of Justice's portal, by typing the address into your browser yourself, never through the link in the message. If the document bears a secure verification code, which is used to check online that it is genuine, check it on the courts' online portal. In Catalonia, the “Seu judicial electrònica”, the Catalan online court portal, has a tool for court documents. If it is fake, do not reply or pay. If you have already opened the link or given any details, change your passwords, tell your bank and call 017, the free cybersecurity helpline of the “INCIBE”, Spain's National Cybersecurity Institute. You can report it to the “Mossos d'Esquadra”, the Catalan police, or to another police force. And if it turns out to be genuine, attend on the date it gives or meet the time limit it sets.