1. Case Background and Procedural Strategy
In 2009, after a heated argument at the marital home, the wife of the Dean Judge of Barcelona reported him for domestic abuse causing injury. At the on-duty Gender Violence Court no. 3 in Barcelona, this lawyer had his client file a complaint for the injuries he himself had suffered; the complaint was admitted and both cross-complaints were processed in the same judicial file, balancing the accusations. Following the investigation and trial before Barcelona Criminal Court no. 16, the judge was acquitted of the abuse offence and convicted only of a minor injury offence carrying a fine, while his wife was acquitted on the basis that she had merely defended herself. The defense appealed the judgment and obtained a ruling from Section 20 of the Barcelona Provincial Court declaring the judge's criminal liability extinguished because the minor injury offence was time-barred, applying the Supreme Court case law argued by the defense.
2. Key Points of the Defense
- Cross-complaints at on-duty Court no. 3: an immediate procedural response filing a complaint for the defendant's own injuries, balancing the accusations within a single case file.
- Acquittal of the abuse offence at Criminal Court no. 16: the defense showed the facts did not amount to a serious offence, limiting the first-instance judgment to a minor injury offence with a fine.
- Appeal based on Supreme Court case law: the statute of limitations was invoked before Section 20 of the Barcelona Provincial Court, which declared criminal liability fully extinguished.
- Judicial career preserved: by avoiding a prison sentence, the judge's expulsion from the judiciary was prevented and his public office fully restored.
«The extinction of criminal liability through the statute of limitations upholds the constitutional principles of legality and effective judicial protection, preventing any disproportionate criminal conviction.»
— Section 20, Barcelona Provincial Court · Special Case
