How long does an appeal to the “Audiencia Provincial” take?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

It depends above all on which provincial appeal court (“Audiencia Provincial”) and which of its sections decides it. The written stages take only a few months and the law then sets a short time limit for delivering judgment, but the real time is set by the backlog of cases. In Barcelona, as the president of the provincial appeal court explained in July 2025, the civil sections were taking around three years to decide appeals and the wait was tending towards four. The two family sections, by contrast, were responding within a time he described as very reasonable. The stages of the appeal From notification of the judgment, the appeal goes through these stages: The appellant has twenty working days to file the appeal. The other party has ten days to oppose it or, in turn, to challenge whatever the judgment denied them. If they challenge the judgment, the appellant has a further ten days to respond. The provincial appeal court decides whether to admit any new evidence requested, which is only possible in exceptional cases. There is a hearing only if evidence has to be taken or if the court considers one necessary. The judges deliberate and deliver judgment. The law gives them one month from the end of the written stages, or ten days from the hearing if there was one. In practice, once the appeal is ready to be decided, it waits its turn until the section can consider it. It is this wait that makes the appeal take so long and that explains the differences between one provincial appeal court and another. How long it takes in practice There is no single time for all appeals, because each provincial appeal court is organised into sections with their own workload. In Barcelona, the president of the provincial appeal court warned in July 2025, when presenting the annual report for 2024, that the situation of the civil sections was serious. They had more than 30.000 cases pending and were taking around three years to respond, with the wait tending towards four. According to him, each section can decide around 1.000 appeals a year and they had twice as many as they could deal with. The two family sections, by contrast, were working with a response time that he described as very reasonable. The “Consejo General del Poder Judicial”, Spain's General Council of the Judiciary, then proposed creating 16 judges' posts for those sections, although the president himself warned that the backlog would not be reduced immediately. In other provincial appeal courts the times are different. Your lawyer can advise you on the section that will decide your appeal. Until the provincial appeal court decides, the judgment is not final. An agreement between the parties, which can be reached at any time, allows the case to end sooner.