How much money can you claim in damages?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

All the damage you can prove and nothing more. Compensation is meant to put you in the position you would have been in if the damage had not occurred, but in Spain no extra amount is added as a punishment. It covers what you have lost or spent, what you have been unable to earn and, where there is any, non-pecuniary damage (distress), plus interest. If you contributed to causing the damage, the amount is reduced proportionately. Whatever is not backed up by invoices, documents or reports is not normally paid. What you can claim Actual loss (“daño emergente”), which is what you have lost or spent, such as the cost of repair or the value of what was destroyed, medical and pharmacy expenses or travel costs. Loss of earnings or profit (“lucro cesante”), which is what you fail to earn, such as your income for the days on which you were unable to work. It must be a probable gain, not a mere expectation. Non-pecuniary damage, which is the suffering or distress that the damage causes. There is no general table of amounts and the judge assesses it according to the circumstances. For injuries, judges usually use the statutory compensation scale for road traffic accidents (the “baremo”) as a guide, even if the damage was not caused by a vehicle. Interest for late payment. It can be claimed from when you made your claim. From the judgment onwards, the statutory interest rate plus two percentage points is owed. If the payer is an insurer that delayed without a justified reason, the interest is higher. What reduces the amount and what does not Your own fault. If the damage is valued at 20.000 euros and the judge considers that you were 25 % to blame, you will receive 15.000 euros. Failing to do what is reasonable to prevent the damage from increasing. Any increase for that reason may not be paid. If the damage arises from a contract, a party who breaches it in good faith is liable for the damage that could be foreseen when it was signed. If the breach involved wilful misconduct, that is, it was deliberate, they are liable for all the damage that results from it. The limit of the liable party's insurance is not the limit of what they owe. They have to pay anything above that limit themselves. A clause limiting a professional's liability to what they charged for the job may be void. In 2026 the “Tribunal Supremo”, Spain's Supreme Court, confirmed that a clause of this kind used by a law firm was void. How it is proved Each item has to be supported by invoices, quotes, payslips, income tax returns or medical or expert reports. In a 2023 opinion, the “Comissió Jurídica Assessora”, the Catalan government's legal advisory body, which reports on claims of 50.000 euros or more against Catalan public authorities, rejected property damage that had not been proved with invoices or photos. It also rejected the loss of earnings, because the payslips from before the accident were missing. In the court claim you must ask for a specific amount, item by item. It is advisable to claim everything that is already known at the same time, because a second lawsuit over what could have been claimed in the first may later not be allowed.