Rotor

A friend has just recieved a summons from the local courts ,the other party on the summons is a neighbour who he had a run in with some two years ago but has had not contact with since although his wife did have an argument with the neoghbours wife around a month ago,the bit I dont understand is the "Cedula de Citacion" is he summonsed as a defendant or is he being subpoenaed as a witness? It reads as follows

Cedula de Citacion

Por la presente se cita la persona abajo señalada , a fin de que comparezca en este juzgado , el dia 18 de abril , a las 9.00 horas ,al objeto de practicar diligencias , advirtiendo que en caso de incomparecencia le paraja el perjuicio a que hubiere lugar en derecho.

Debera venir provisto de DNI

En Anytown, vientenueve de Marzo de dos mil once.

D/Da FRED SMITH

PAREJE .CASA XXXXXXX,ANYTOWN

lynnxa

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty certain that this is a summons for a sort of pre-hearing to see if there is a case to answer

twistedmelon

It is a summons to appear in court.
They have to or they will be in contempt of court. It depends on who is calling them and for what reason. Are they a witness or actually involved in the denuncia?
Witnesses can claim expenses depending on their involvment.

lynnxa

that was the original question

JulianWard

And Twisted Melon tried to answer it, but there is not enough info in the post to know in what capacity they are ordered to attend.

It would seem that the obvious course would be for the friend to contact the court and ask them.


"It is hereby ordered that the person mentioned below, is to appear in this Court, day 18 of April, at 0900 hours, in order to practice proceedings, ...................................."

Rotor

Thats what he will do Monday...when they open , it`s bugging him now as its a total mystery as to why he has to go to court , guess when he`s lived here a little longer he will realise nothing makes sense in Spain

twistedmelon

Denuncias can take upto 2 years to get processed by the court, especially on matters of trivia between vecinos, I'm assuming that this is as a witness as there appears to be no previous or present paperwork from the GC or abogodo stating the exact grounds of the matter.
Hope that answers a bit clearer.
Tell your friends not to make plans, arriving at 9.00 means nothing,could be there all day.
Also if they can't speak spanish a translator will have to be appointed if not already arranged.

JulianWard

I believe courts must have interpreters (who are paid by the court).

twistedmelon

They do but depending on the size of the court they sometimes have to pre arrange for them to be present for the particular case.

HBG

It’s similar to the UK civil court procedure. The plaintiff presents his side of the case to the court and the respondent then replies with his side of it, prior to any official hearing.

A sort of statement is taken by a clerk in a side office. It will definitely need an interpreter and the usual papers to identify yourself, passport, residencia etc.

It’s only the start of a long procedure which will take around two years at least. My information comes from my interpreter wife who has dealt with many such cases.

She has just shouted through to me, ‘If they’ve got any witnesses, it’s best to take them along.’

Rotor

My friend eventually found out what this was about , the courts had lost details of a fine he had paid over a year ago so he was summonsed to court!!!

Luckily he still had the justificante and the court offical actually apologised for their error (is ths a first ever in Spain?)

What is annoying is he was under stress for 5 days wondering what he had done wrong! incompetent baskets

And what makes it worse the court (taxpayer) had to pay for a translator .

twistedmelon

Many years ago a spanish person said something which I think sums it up.
They said, english people use their heads to think, spanish use theirs for hats
I have never met a spanish person who understood so what chance do we have. Making it up as you go along some times works in your favour many times it doesn't but at least the sun shines a lot.