How to Appeal a DGT Traffic Fine in Spain: Alegaciones, Reposición and the Courts (2026)

A DGT fine dies more often on paperwork than on argument. An identification defect, a late notification, a missed deadline: these end more files than a judge ever does. This page works through the appeal ladder in the order you actually meet it, what to argue first, what each later step costs, and what paying early gives up.

Information last verified on 23 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

Answer the identification request first

Before any of this, one duty comes first. Art. 11 TRLTSV requires a vehicle's titular to identify who was driving when an infraction is detected, licence number included, whenever the DGT asks. Ignore or falsify that request and the fine that follows is not the original offence's fine: it is calculated as double the base fine if the underlying infraction was leve, or triple it if the underlying infraction was grave or muy grave (art. 77.j, via art. 80.2.b TRLTSV).

This penalty is also one of the few excluded outright from the 50 percent pronto pago discount (art. 93.2 TRLTSV). Answering the identification request accurately, even when it means naming yourself, is almost always the cheaper path.

What actually wins in alegaciones

Once notified, you have 20 días naturales to file free alegaciones, no lawyer required, and to offer evidence (art. 95.1 TRLTSV). The arguments that move a file are usually procedural, not a retelling of what happened on the road:

• Notification defects: the wrong address, late delivery, or a notice that never validly reached you.
• Prescription: the infraction itself prescribes in 3 months (leve) or 6 months (grave y muy grave) from the date of the facts (art. 112.1 TRLTSV). A first valid notification arriving after that window is attackable outright.
• Caducidad: separately, if a procedure that has already started reaches no resolution within one year, the whole file caduca (art. 112.3 TRLTSV).
• Errors identifying the vehicle, the driver or the circumstances recorded in the denuncia.
• Missing or non-compliant signage, or a radar reading outside its legal margin of error, an argument covered in depth on the speed-camera margins page.

The trap: silence can become the resolution

Doing nothing is not neutral. If you neither pay nor file alegaciones within 20 días naturales, the denuncia itself becomes the acto resolutorio for leves in every case, for graves without point loss that could not be notified in person, and for graves and muy graves that were notified in person regardless of points (art. 95.4 TRLTSV). Once that happens, the sanction can be enforced 30 días naturales after the original notification, with no separate resolution letter required.

Reposición, then the courts

Against a formal sanctioning resolution, there are two further rungs (art. 96 TRLTSV). First, the recurso de reposición: optional, filed within one month with the same body that issued the resolution. It does not pause enforcement, and if the DGT never answers, silence after one month counts as a rejection, which opens the next route.

Second, the recurso contencioso-administrativo: filed with the courts within two months of an express denial, whether that denial was of the original resolution or of the reposición (art. 46 LJCA). If the DGT never issues an express answer at all, a more generous six-month window for presumed acts applies, but acting within two months is always the safer read.

For a small fine, court rarely makes financial sense. For a muy grave sanction carrying real point loss or a suspension, it can.

What paying early forfeits

The 20-day pronto pago halves most fines, but it is a full exchange, not a discount coupon (art. 94 TRLTSV). Any alegaciones already filed are treated as not presented, the sanction becomes firme the day you pay, and the only door left open afterward is the contencioso-administrativo, an expensive route for a small fine. One upside survives: a grave fine paid early does not count as an antecedent in the DGT's registry, provided it carried no point loss.

The pattern holds across most cases worth fighting: a fine rarely collapses because a driver argued they were not really speeding. It collapses because the paperwork behind it had a defect the DGT could not fix once flagged. Full detail on the amounts and the pronto pago trade is on the multas page; the wider map of Spanish traffic law is on the driving section.

This page is general legal information about Spanish law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case. The controlling texts are the current versions in the BOE and the DGT's official pages.