Duty-solicitor scheme: Royal Decree 824/2026 updates the fee modules and starts paying for ADR

Royal Decree 824/2026 of 14 October amends the Free Legal Aid Regulation approved by Royal Decree 141/2021. It was published in the BOE on 15 October 2026 and entered into force the following day, 16 October.

The reform replaces Annexes II and III of the regulation, that is, the tables that set how much each duty-solicitor action is compensated and the rules on when it is paid. It also repeals Order PJC/281/2025. For the lawyers who provide the service, it is the most relevant change to pay since the regulation was approved in 2021.

The territorial scope should be borne in mind. As the General Council of the Spanish Legal Profession recalled in 2025, the Ministry sets the modules in the territory where it has competence, and some autonomous communities had already approved their own scales for negotiation activity.

ADR enters the scale

The most awaited novelty is compensation for negotiation activity before trial. Since April 2025, Organic Law 1/2025 requires an appropriate dispute resolution method to be attempted before suing in most civil matters, as we explain in our guide to the precondition for suing.

The General Council of the Spanish Legal Profession asked in April 2025 for that activity to be paid under the duty-solicitor scheme, whether or not there was an agreement, and for the Ministry to create a specific scale. The new Annex II responds as follows:

• ADR with agreement: 125% of the amount applicable to the procedure.
• ADR without agreement: €30.
• Prior employment conciliation with agreement: 125% of the applicable amount.
• Out-of-court settlements: rise from 75% to 125% of the applicable amount, according to the preamble.

Annex III sets the procedure: a file is processed before the Free Legal Aid Commission and payment is made once the document proving the agreement or lack of agreement has been submitted.

On-call duty and assistance to detainees

Some figures from the new scale for the on-call service:

For availability with advice and help for the complaint, the cap is €262.44. Similar amounts apply to assistance to victims of terrorism, trafficking and sexual offences and to people with disabilities.

Travel

The regulation compensates by distance band:

• Assistance in gender-based violence cases: €14.10 from 5 km, €35.29 from 25 km and €58.80 from 50 km.
• Visits to prisons: €15.57, €37.26 and €54.00 for the same bands.

Proceedings: some reference amounts

Especially complex criminal cases have additional amounts for volume and per trial day. In administrative litigation, an appeal before the National High Court is compensated with €269.56.

When it is paid

The new Annex III sets the timing of payment:

1. General rule: 70% when the procedural milestone that triggers it occurs and the remaining 30% with the judgment or decision that ends the proceedings.
2. Settlements and unsustainability reports: paid in full when submitted.
3. Prison visits: paid in full with the certificate from the prison.
4. Prior administrative stage in immigration and asylum: paid in full with the final administrative act.

The published text sets no maximum deadlines for the Administration to pay the amounts.

What to do now

• If you provide the duty-solicitor service within the Ministry's remit, check with your bar association how ADR actions are justified from 16 October.
• Keep the documentation that proves the agreement or lack of agreement: it is what triggers payment.
• If you practise in a region with devolved powers, check its own rules.

The Organic Law on the Right of Defence defines the duty-solicitor scheme as an essential pillar of the system, as we recalled in our summary of the Organic Law on the Right of Defence. Free legal aid will also be one of the strands of the 14th National Congress of the Legal Profession. We will follow the development of the reform in Industry news.