How long do I have to claim for medical negligence?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

It depends on where you were treated and on whom you are claiming against. If you were treated by the public health service, you have one year from your recovery or from when the extent of the after-effects becomes known. In private healthcare in Catalonia, it is generally three years against a doctor or clinic with which you had no contract and, in principle, up to ten against those you contracted with. In injury cases, the time limit does not start on the day of the operation, but when the harm and its extent are genuinely known. To be on the safe side, always work on the basis of the shortest time limit and make a written claim within the first year. Time limits, depending on where you were treated If you were treated by the public health service, including at a private centre working for it, you have one year to submit a claim for compensation to the public authorities based on their “responsabilidad patrimonial”, the liability of public authorities in damages. In private healthcare in Catalonia, the time limit against anyone who did not have a contract with you is three years. This is usually the case with the doctor and the clinic on your private medical insurer's list of doctors, because your contract is with the insurance company. In Catalonia, against the clinic or doctor you contracted with, for example because you paid them directly, the time limit is in principle up to ten years. Do not cut it fine, because the doctor's or clinic's insurance may only cover claims made while it is in force. Outside Catalonia, in private healthcare, one year if there was no contract and five if there was. Against the doctor's or clinic's insurer, the same time limit as against them. If you sue only the insurer of a public hospital in a civil court, assume a time limit of one year. That is what happened in the case decided by the “Tribunal Supremo”, Spain's Supreme Court, in its judgment 182/2026 of 10 February, in Andalusia, where the one-year time limit of the Spanish Civil Code (“Código Civil”) was applied. In Catalonia it is not clear whether it is one year or three. When the time limit starts to run The time limit starts when you know, or could reasonably know, about the harm and who caused it. In injury cases this is usually when you are finally discharged from medical treatment, when it is known what after-effects will remain. Supreme Court judgment 182/2026 points out that the first symptoms are not enough, nor are reports that speak of a “possible” or “probable” diagnosis, because the seriousness and extent of the harm must actually be known. Doubts about that moment are not resolved against the patient. How to avoid missing the time limit A written claim interrupts the time limit, which then starts running again in full from that day. Send it to the doctor, the clinic and their insurers by a method that leaves a record, such as a “burofax”, a certified letter with proof of content. Claiming against one of them may not interrupt the time limit as against the others. It is also interrupted by the request to negotiate or to go to mediation that the law has required since 2025 before suing. While criminal proceedings over the same facts are ongoing, the civil time limit does not run. In the public health service, what counts is submitting the claim for compensation to the public authorities within the year. A complaint is not enough. For example, if the after-effects stabilised with your discharge on 15 March 2026, in the public health service the time limit ends on 15 March 2027. Against a private doctor in Catalonia with whom you had no contract, it ends on 15 March 2029. If on 10 September 2026 the doctor receives a burofax in which you make your claim, that time limit starts again and ends on 10 September 2029.