Justice Denied sPain
Justice Denied: How Bar Associations in Spain Protect Lawyers Instead of the Public
Over the past five years, I have witnessed first-hand how some lawyers in Spain and Portugal have acted not as defenders of justice, but as architects of abuse. I have been the victim of calculated fraud, coercion, and legal manipulation by lawyers whose professional role should be to uphold the law and protect the vulnerable. Instead, they exploited it—and me.
This post is not simply a personal account. It is a critique of how professional regulation in Spain, particularly in Andalusia, is structurally incapable of holding lawyers accountable. It is a warning to anyone who believes that bar associations ("illustrious colegios de abogados") are truly designed to protect the public. And it is a call to reform a system that enables impunity under the guise of professional self-governance.
Estepona: Legal Abuse as Business Model
In Estepona, I uncovered serious financial irregularities in the administration of a residential community of homeowners. My attempts to expose this triggered an orchestrated retaliation by lawyers connected to the community's power structure. They initiated SLAPP-style litigation and fabricated debts to silence my inquiries. What followed was a campaign of pressure, disinformation and strategic legal delay.
These lawyers and their collaborators targeted me in part because I am a scots-speaking foreigner with health difficulties—an easy mark for a system that favours insiders and punishes dissenters. Their actions were not mere incompetence or negligence. They acted with intent, coordination and an alarming sense of impunity.
Institutional Silence: Closed Circle of Protection
I filed detailed complaints with Illustrious Bar Association of Málaga (ICAMálaga), supported by documentation. The response? Silence. Not once did ICAMálaga initiate an independent investigation or acknowledge the serious ethical breaches involved. Internal communications obtained later revealed bias: the lawyers I complained about were personally known to members of the reviewing committee.
My appeals to Consejo Andaluz de Colegios de Abogados (Andalusian regional council) were similarly fruitless. Despite being positioned as a coordinating body, it refused to recognise even the possibility of regulatory failure at local level. Consejo General de la Abogacía Española, Spain's national legal council, continues to claim incompetence to intervene.
Thus, the structure is clear: Local bar associations have full disciplinary control, but no external body has authority to review their failures. In effect, lawyers police themselves.
European Outlier
Compare this to other EU countries. France, Italy and Netherlands all have national disciplinary bodies or transparent appeals mechanisms. Germany allows complaints to escalate beyond regional bar chambers. Even within Spain, lawyers may practice nationally, but complaints are confined to their home colegios. There is no functional oversight above the local level.
This is not just a legal design flaw—it is a human rights risk.
System Builds to Serve Itself
Many witnessed abuses stem from deeper confusion between residential and commercial interests. In Estepona, what was legally defined as a residential community was, in reality, run like a commercial resort. Homeowners—especially non-resident ones—were treated as revenue sources, not stakeholders.
A simple principle could clarify this: If a property is not used as a permanent residence, it should be considered commercial. Legal protections for homes should not be exploited by those who use housing for vanity, speculation or passive undeclared income. Legal profession should be at the forefront of defending that distinction. Instead, in my case, lawyers worked to obscure it.
Accountability: A Global Perspective
It is not enough to call merely on Spain to reform. European Union should establish baseline standards for legal professional discipline, including a right to independent review and transparent complaint procedures. But the issue is global. United Nations, too, must recognise the vulnerability of individuals facing legal abuse by professionals shielded by weak regulation.
Universal minimum standards are required for regulation of legal professionals, e.g:
Independent national disciplinary bodies
Publicly accessible complaint records
Protection for complainers (including foreigners, linguistic minorities and disabled individuals)
Explicit condemnation and regulation of SLAPP tactics
Conclusion
Without independent, transparent and enforceable national systems of professional accountability, lawyers are not guardians of justice—they become instruments of injustice.
Bar associations in Andalusia failed in their duty to protect the public. When lawyers act with impunity, democracy suffers. When those entrusted to uphold law exploit it for personal gain, trust erodes. Reform is overdue.