You've Been Summoned to Testify as a Person Under Investigation: What Happens and What to Decide First

Receiving a court summons as a person under investigation triggers an almost universal impulse: go as soon as possible, explain yourself, and clear up the misunderstanding. It is, by far, the worst possible decision. What is said at that hearing gets recorded and will stay with the case file until the end.

What It Means to Be a "Person Under Investigation"

Since the 2015 reform of the Spanish Criminal Procedure Act (Ley de Enjuiciamiento Criminal, LECrim), the old term "imputado" — the previous word for "accused" — was replaced with "investigado", or "person under investigation," for the pre-trial investigation phase, and with "encausado" once a formal indictment order or an order opening the oral trial has been issued. The change was not merely cosmetic: it was meant to underline that being under investigation is not the same as being charged, let alone convicted.

Being summoned as a person under investigation means that someone — the Public Prosecutor's Office, the police, or a private party through a criminal complaint or private accusation — has raised facts that could amount to a crime, and the court wants to hear your version before deciding whether the case moves forward. In many cases the investigation ends in a dismissal: the matter is closed without ever reaching trial.

That said, the summons is also the moment your procedural position is fixed. From that instant, deadlines start running, rights open up, and decisions get made that cannot be undone afterward.

Your Rights From the Moment You Receive the Summons

Article 118 of the Criminal Procedure Act grants anyone to whom a punishable act is attributed a series of rights that apply from the moment they are notified of their status as a person under investigation. These include:

• Being informed of the facts attributed to them and of any significant changes to the scope of the investigation.
• Appointing a lawyer of their choice. You are not obliged to accept a court-appointed one if you prefer your own.
• Accessing the case file with enough advance notice to prepare a defense. This is the point most often neglected — and the most valuable one.
• Remaining silent, not testifying against themselves, and not pleading guilty.
• Declining to testify about the facts attributed to them.

The third point deserves particular attention. Your lawyer can examine the case file before the statement is given: the criminal complaint, the police report, expert findings, what others have said. Appearing without having read that material means testifying blind about facts the other party has already described in detail.

To Testify or Not to Testify?

There is no single right answer, and you should be wary of anyone who gives you one without having seen the file. What can be described are the three possible approaches:

• Testify normally, answering all parties. This makes sense when your own account is solid, verifiable, and undercuts the accusation.
• Testify only in response to your own lawyer's questions. This lets you put your version on the record without submitting to questioning by the prosecution. It is a legitimate and common option.
• Exercise the right not to testify. This is not an admission and cannot be held against you. It is sometimes the wisest course when the investigation is still at an early stage and the real scope of what is being investigated is unknown.

Silence is not an admission. An improvised statement, on the other hand, is evidence.

There is a nuance that often surprises people: what is said during the investigation phase does not always carry over into the trial as such, but it can be used to expose contradictions. If you say one thing in November and another at trial, that difference will be put in front of you.

What Happens If You Don't Appear

Ignoring the summons does not make the case disappear — it makes it worse. Unjustified failure to appear can lead to an order for your appearance to be enforced by the police and, depending on the seriousness of the matter and the flight risk the court perceives, to precautionary measures that might not otherwise have been considered.

If the date is genuinely impossible for a provable reason — a medical leave, a non-postponable trip already booked — the right approach is to notify the court beforehand, with supporting documentation, and request a new date. Failing to show up and explaining afterward rarely works.

How a Statement Is Prepared

A well-prepared statement is not about memorizing a speech. It comes down to three things:

1. Knowing the case file. Exactly what you are accused of, on what evidence, and what everyone else has said. Without this, everything else is guesswork.
2. Sorting out the facts. Separating what is objectively true, what is the other party's interpretation, and what simply did not happen.
3. Deciding your procedural position in light of the above — not the other way around.

There is a practical matter to add to this: identifying, from the outset, the evidence for the defense worth putting forward — emails, messages, bank transfers, work records, witnesses. The sooner it is submitted, the better: the investigation phase runs on deadlines, and evidence that arrives late may not make it in at all.

Five Costly Mistakes

• Showing up without your own lawyer. A court-appointed lawyer learns about the case minutes before you do. They are a competent professional, but they have had no chance to study anything.
• Contacting the other party. Messages sent "to sort things out" consistently end up in the case file, and they almost never help.
• Deleting information. Even if it is routine housekeeping, if it happens after you learn of the investigation, it will be read as concealment.
• Improvising dates and figures. A wrong detail stated from memory becomes a contradiction you will have to explain at trial.
• Assuming the case will be dismissed. Many cases are dismissed, yes. But the statement is given before that is known.

If you have a summons on the table, the urgent task is not deciding what you are going to say — it is making sure someone reads the case file before you do.

Where This Happens in Gran Canaria

If the proceedings are being handled in the capital, the pre-trial investigation falls to the Examining Courts of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, at the Ciudad de la Justicia (Justice City). Outside the capital, each judicial district has its own: Telde, Arucas, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Santa María de Guía, and Santa Lucía de Tirajana, among others.

One practical detail worth keeping in mind: the judicial district is determined by where the events took place, not by where you live. It is common for someone from the capital to be summoned by a court in a different municipality — and to find out about the trip the day before.

We appear before the courts throughout the province and, when a matter requires it, before those in the rest of the archipelago and on the mainland.

Need advice on Criminal Law? Our team is ready to help.

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Notice: this article is for general information purposes and reflects the law in force on its publication date. It is not legal or tax advice for any specific case. Before making any decision, consult a professional.