Sworn translation for the exequatur of a foreign judgment in Spain

What exequatur is

A judgment handed down outside Spain has no effect here on its own. If you divorced in London or in Miami and need that divorce to count in Spain —to remarry, divide property or have it recorded at the Civil Registry— a Spanish judge has to recognise it first. That recognition procedure (and, where the judgment needs enforcing, the authorisation to enforce it) is called exequatur, and it is governed by Law 29/2015 on international legal cooperation in civil matters.

It is not a stamp you collect at a counter. It is a full court procedure before the Courts of First Instance —or the Commercial Courts, when the subject matter is theirs—, as a rule those of the domicile of the party against whom recognition is sought. The law itself requires the parties to be represented by a procurador (Spanish court agent) and assisted by a lawyer (article 54.1). We will be blunt about this, because we get asked every week: we are not lawyers and we do not run exequatur proceedings. We give no legal advice. Our role is smaller and very specific: the sworn translation of the entire foreign file.

When you need it — and when you don't

The distinction that matters is geographic. Within the European Union most judgments circulate without exequatur: the EU regulations —Brussels I bis for civil and commercial matters, Brussels II ter for divorce and parental responsibility— allow recognition with a certificate from the court of origin. A French divorce or a German ruling rarely goes through this procedure.

Exequatur is therefore for judgments from third countries. The United States and Canada have always been in that group. The United Kingdom joined it with Brexit: proceedings started on or after 1 January 2021 no longer travel on an EU passport and fall under Law 29/2015. If that is exactly your situation, our blog explains what happens to a British Decree Absolute in Spain. One more honest note: in some specific cases, such as recording a divorce at the Civil Registry, there may be a registry route that avoids court altogether. Whether it applies to you is a question for your lawyer, not for us.

What the court requires (and what gets translated)

Article 54.4 of Law 29/2015 lists what must go with the application:

• The original or an authentic copy of the foreign judgment, duly legalised or apostilled.
• If the judgment was given in default of appearance, the document proving that the writ of summons was served on the defendant.
• Any other document proving the judgment is final and, where relevant, enforceable. In an English divorce that is the Decree Absolute or the Final Order; in the United States, usually a certification issued by the court itself.
• The relevant translations, as provided for in article 144 of the Spanish Civil Procedure Act.

That article 144 hides a detail worth knowing: in theory it admits a private translation, but if the other party challenges it, the court orders an official translation at the expense of whoever filed the first one. With litigation already under way, few savings prove more expensive. That is why law firms file a sworn translation from day one — and why the whole set gets translated: the full judgment, not a summary, plus the apostille, the certificate of finality and any service documents.

How we do it at Textualia

Upload the judgment and the rest of the file as PDFs and the price appears instantly; no account needed. A sworn translator authorised by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAEC) signs and stamps a translation faithful to the original, stamps, apostille and certifications included. You receive an electronically signed PDF, ready for your procurador to file electronically; if the court prefers paper, we issue the copy on official stamped paper and post it. We are used to working side by side with the firm running the case: if your lawyer wants to check terminology or needs the translation delivered in stages, we talk it through and make it happen.

A court judgment is not a birth certificate. Some run to three pages, some to forty, full of reasoning, figures and legal citations. The quote is calculated on the actual document, with no surprises afterwards. And everything you upload is treated in strict confidence: encrypted and shared with no one.

If the exequatur is your first step towards remarrying here, you may also want our page on sworn translation for getting married in Spain.