Administrative and Contentious-Administrative Law. Experienced Lawyers
The Administrative and Contentious-Administrative Law department at IN DIEM Abogados is made up of a team of specialists with a long track record, including experience as Judges, State Attorneys, and Public Prosecutors… who provide the utmost clarity, solutions, and precise knowledge regarding the matter entrusted to us.
This department is currently under the legal direction of our colleague Matilde Flores Esquivias, who has experience as a Judge in Contentious-Administrative Courts and Tribunals, together with a team of lawyers who are experts in the field.
We currently provide defence in matters of public procurement, civil service and labour staff, penalties, tourist apartments, sports, public administration liability, and taxes, among others, with numerous successful cases. Our Administrative Law team will be pleased to assist you.
Administrative law is an area of public law that regulates the organisation, services, and activity of the Public Administration, including its relationship with citizens and between different administrations.
Public Administration is understood to mean:
- The General State Administration.
- The Autonomous Communities
- The entities that make up Local Administration (Provinces, Municipalities, and Islands)
- Other public-law entities with their own legal personality, linked to or dependent on other Public Administrations.
The activity of the Public Administration is formalised through administrative acts, which are those issued in the exercise of its powers and functions, creating or recording legal effects.
Administrative acts may affect us directly or indirectly, through limitation or denial of rights, the imposition of penalties, negligence, or the causing of damages, etc. In this regard, the role of an Administrative Lawyer is to:
- Prepare applications, petitions, tenders;
- Assist and help complete any procedure;
- Provide legal advice
- Defend in administrative proceedings (appeals)
- Litigate in contentious-administrative (judicial) proceedings.
The main areas in which our team of IN DIEM Administrative Lawyers provides services are:
- Fines and Penalties. Sanctioning Procedure.
- Review of Cadastral Values
- Public Procurement and Tenders
- Civil Service
- Compensation. Non-contractual liability of the Public Administration.
- Grants and Aid
- Compulsory Expropriation
- Regulated Sectors
- Urban Planning
- Taxes
- Immigration and Nationality
Fines and Penalties. Sanctioning Procedure. Administrative.
Within its regulated powers, the Public Administration has the power to impose fines and penalties where citizens, natural or legal persons, breach the law and such consequences are duly provided for and regulated as an administrative offence.
The sanctioning power of Public Administrations is set out in two provisions of the Constitution itself:
“No one may be convicted or punished for actions or omissions that, at the time they were committed, did not constitute a crime, misdemeanour, or administrative offence, under the legislation in force at that time.” Art. 25.1 CE
“Likewise, everyone has the right to the ordinary judge predetermined by law, to defence and legal assistance, to be informed of the accusation brought against them, to a public trial without undue delay and with all guarantees, to use the relevant means of evidence for their defence, not to testify against themselves, not to confess guilt, and to the presumption of innocence.” Art. 24.2 CE
Administrative sanctioning law is based on the following principles:
- Principle of Legality
- Principle of Typification
- Principle of Non-Retroactivity
- Principle of Responsibility or Culpability
- Principle of Presumption of Innocence
- Principle of Proportionality
- Principle of Non bis in idem
Once you have been notified of, or become aware of, the existence of a sanctioning administrative procedure
, it is advisable to use the existing legal framework to submit the relevant allegations and the evidence deemed appropriate for the purposes of defence, if you wish to mount a defence, in order to avoid the penalty or reduce it to what is truly proportionate.
Due to the extensive powers of the Public Administration, the following are common procedures:
- Urban Planning
- Noise
- Traffic
- Prohibited Substances
- Social Security
- Tax-related
- Etc.
IN DIEM Abogados makes available to you a specialist team of Administrative Lawyers to assist you with whatever you need and to exercise your right to defend yourself.
Review of Cadastral Values.
The Cadastral Value is, as a general rule, the tax base for real estate, and therefore affects:
- Real Estate Tax (IBI, known as “contribución”);
- Personal Income Tax (IRPF) in relation to income from real estate not used for a business or professional activity and that is not the main residence;
- Non-Resident Income Tax
- Tax on the Increase in Value of Urban Land (Plusvalía)
- And for the verification of the value to be set for Transfer Tax and Inheritance and Gift Tax.
IN DIEM Abogados defends owners in the event of changes to data or changes to cadastral values, submitting the relevant allegations and/or appeal before the Tax Agency or the Economic-Administrative Court; for these purposes, all means are used to correct the errors that commonly occur in these changes and revaluations, preventing the increase in the tax burden that they usually entail.
Public Procurement and Tenders
IN DIEM provides services aimed at facilitating companies’ access to national and international public tender markets, whether in procurement, supplies, services, or public works.
The aim is to maximise results and profitability through the involvement of specialised professionals who assess the suitability of bids, chances of success, procedure viability, costs, risks, and contingencies.
IN DIEM supports the company throughout the entire process, facilitating the preparation of documentation, the tender strategy, the search for professional profiles suitable for the required work, the submission of technical and financial proposals, and the creation of consortia or strategic alliances with local partners abroad that significantly increase the company’s chances of international success.
Tender Support Services may be provided through partial outsourcing alongside the company’s business or procurement services, or by creating a specialised external tender department.
IN DIEM Abogados provides—among others—the following services:
- Analysis of administrative, legal, and technical specifications, as well as other tender conditions
- Legal assistance in the tender process
- Tender strategy, scoring criteria, and points allocation
- Company communications with the contracting authority
- Obtaining, lodging, and cancellation of guarantees. Status monitoring
- Legal review (bastanteo) of deeds and other documentation
- Tenderer registers. Registrations and renewals
- Local tax certificates
- Formalisation of contracts with the Public Administration
Likewise, we assist in procurement processes in defending our clients’ interests:
- Requests for clarifications and appeals
- Contract terminations
- Claims for payment of the price
- Claims for late-payment interest
- Challenges to specifications
- Reconsideration appeals
- Special appeals in procurement matters
- Claims for compensation for breaches by the Public Administration
- Challenges to awards
- Contentious-administrative proceedings in procurement matters.
Civil Service
The Civil Service Law Department deals with the relationships of staff within the Administration, through advice, management, and defence in two main areas:
- Rights of civil servants, labour staff, and statutory staff, including: supplements, length-of-service increments, internal promotions, transfers, changes of posting, job swaps, salary suspensions, filling of positions, etc.
- Work-life, personal, and family balance.
- Violation of fundamental rights: workplace harassment (mobbing), discrimination, or breaches of the right to equality, etc.
- Leaves of absence for family reunification, gender-based violence, provision of services, voluntary, and compulsory.
- Selection processes: competitive examinations, competitions, and competition-examinations, for all types of staff, including education, healthcare, law enforcement agencies, etc.
Liability of the Public Administration
The non-contractual liability of public administrations is the State’s obligation to repair or compensate for damage caused by the operation of any of the Public Administrations that make it up.
This obligation to repair and compensate is provided for in the Spanish Constitution:
“Individuals, under the terms established by law, shall have the right to be compensated for any harm they suffer to any of their property and rights, except in cases of force majeure, provided that the harm is a consequence of the operation of public services.” Art. 106.2 Spanish Constitution
“Damage caused by judicial error, as well as that resulting from the abnormal functioning of the Administration of Justice, shall give rise to compensation payable by the State, in accordance with the law.” Art. 121 Spanish Constitution
The situations that may give rise to this non-contractual liability of the Administration are:
- Due to normal or abnormal operation of public services
- Due to legislative acts
- Due to judicial actions arising from judicial error.
It should be borne in mind that the time limit for filing a claim is ONE (1) year from the occurrence of the event that may give rise to compensation. In the case of physical or psychological harm, the one-year period will begin to run from recovery or from the determination of the extent of the after-effects.
And the requirements for non-contractual liability of the Administration to apply are:
- Existence of compensable DAMAGE or INJURY; that is, actual damage, economically assessable, and individualised to a person or group of persons.
- Damage ATTRIBUTABLE to a Public Administration.
- A CAUSAL LINK between the damage and the operation of the Public Administration.
- The damage must be UNLAWFUL; that is, the citizen must not have a legal duty to bear it.
Common claims include the following:
- Falls on public roads due to poor maintenance.
- Claims for compensation for medical errors
- Accidents due to lack of road maintenance or lack of signage.
- Falls in public buildings due to lack of proper maintenance
- Non-contractual liability in urban planning matters
- Compensation in public procurement matters for breaches of contract
- Compensation for errors in the administration of justice, such as: wrongful deprivation of liberty or undue delays.
