English-Speaking Lawyer in Denia or Moraira: How to Find One and Check Any of Us

Nobody searches for an English speaking lawyer in Dénia on a good day. Either you have just found the house and the agent wants a deposit by Friday, or an envelope you cannot read has landed on the mat. Both are moments when you need somebody now, which is exactly when people skip the checking.

So here is the practical version. There are plenty of lawyers on this coast who work in English. What you actually need to know, sitting at home in Kent or Düsseldorf, is three things: whether the person is genuinely a registered Spanish lawyer, who they act for, and what has to be put in writing before you pay a single euro. The first one takes about two minutes in an official register, and I am going to show you exactly where, using our own name as the example.

My name is Daniel Bertomeu. I work alongside my father Juan Bertomeu, a lawyer with offices in Moraira and Dénia, here on the Costa Blanca, since 1991. We are an independent firm, and we act for owners along the whole stretch from Oliva down to Alicante, most of it between Oliva and Benidorm: Dénia, Jávea, Moraira, Benissa, Calpe, Altea. Juan is the lawyer of the family, ICALI number 4643. Keep that number handy. In a minute you are going to look it up.

Why your own lawyer, and not the one you were handed

Start with the question almost nobody asks out loud: who does this lawyer act for?

The agent is paid when the sale completes. The seller wants to sell. Nothing sinister in either of those, but neither of them is you. A lawyer you found and instructed yourself answers to you alone, and the job is to find the problems while you can still walk away: the debts and charges already sitting on the property, the licence that was never obtained, the clause in the deposit contract that quietly moves the risk onto you. The whole sequence is set out in our guide to buying property in Spain as a non resident.

We are independent, which means we act for you. Not for the agent, not for the seller, and not for whoever needs the sale to complete this month. And when a name is recommended to you by someone with a commission riding on the outcome, you do not have to assume bad faith. You just have to check that name the same way you would check any other. Including ours.

Where to find English speaking lawyers around Dénia and Moraira

First, a thing most buyers do not know. A Spanish lawyer registered with any bar association can act in the whole of Spain. One college is enough, and no college may demand extra paperwork or extra fees from a lawyer arriving from another province. So there is no special local licence to hunt for, because it does not exist. What you are really choosing is familiarity: someone who deals with this coast's town halls, notaries and habits every week, and who can sit across a table from you in your own language.

Where do you look? Recommendations from other owners are how most people start, and as a start they are fine. There is also an official route most foreigners have never heard of: the public census of Spanish lawyers, which the Abogacía itself describes as a tool any citizen can use to locate a lawyer near their town, map to the office included. However you build your shortlist, every name on it gets the same two minute check. Ours included.

The two minute check, demonstrated on us

Under the statute that governs Spanish lawyers, only somebody registered with a bar association as a practising lawyer may call themselves an abogado. The same statute requires a national census of practising lawyers, public and online, showing each lawyer's college. This is not a directory somebody pays to appear in. It is the official register, built from the data the colleges themselves send in.

So, the check:

1. Open the census search at censo.abogacia.es. It is run by the General Council of Spanish Lawyers, which explains the service here: you can search by name, surname or bar number, across every college in the country.
2. Type the name. Try ours, right now: Juan Bertomeu, college of Alicante, number 4643. That is my father. If a lawyer is genuinely practising in Spain, they appear, with their college.
3. If a name does not come up, or something does not match what you were told, ask the college directly. The Abogacía's own FAQ page admits the census can carry information lags and points you to the college as the confirmation, so the double check is their advice, not just mine. On this coast that college is ICALI, the provincial bar of Alicante. It covers the whole province, which means a lawyer based in Dénia, Jávea or Moraira is registered there, and it keeps a delegation in Dénia.

One more thing the statute hands you. A lawyer must state their college and bar number in everything they do. So if you have read a firm's entire website and cannot find a bar number anywhere, that silence is itself an answer.

That is the short version. The long one, with every step and every document in order, is in our guide to hiring a lawyer in Spain as a non resident.

What has to happen before you pay a euro

Spanish law is unusually specific about this part, and it was written with someone in your position in mind.

If legal services are sold to you online, the identity of the individual lawyer providing them, and their college, must be communicated to you before the service is provided and, in any case, before you are asked for any payment at all. Before, not on the invoice afterwards. A service that wants your card details first and will name your lawyer later has the order exactly backwards.

Before the work starts, a lawyer must set out fees and costs, preferably in a written engagement letter, the hoja de encargo, and if your matter could end up in court, warn you what a costs order against you might look like. This is not a courtesy. Skipping those information duties is a disciplinary offence, and the fines for that category run up to 10,000 euros.

The fee itself is agreed freely between you and the lawyer. There is no official price list, and the colleges are actually prohibited from setting or even recommending one. So if anyone ever quotes you "the college tariff", you have just learned something useful about them, because there is no such thing.

Two more protections people only discover when things go wrong. Your documents are yours: a lawyer may keep copies, but may never retain your paperwork. And client money is sacred ground, because keeping funds that belong to a client sits among the gravest offences in the disciplinary code, the kind that can end a career. When the bill arrives, it must be a proper itemised invoice, concept by concept, with VAT on top at the general rate, which is 21 percent.

The red flags, in one list

None of these points at anybody. They are simply the mirror image of the rules above.

• No bar number anywhere on the website, the emails or the letterhead.
• Payment requested before you know which lawyer, and which college, you are dealing with.
• No engagement letter, or a shrug when you ask for the fees in writing.
• A quoted "official college rate". The colleges are banned from setting rates.
• A promised result. Lawyer advertising in Spain may not promise outcomes that do not depend solely on the lawyer's own work.
• Your original documents held on to. Never allowed.

Who we are, on this stretch of coast

That is the test. It is only fair to show you how we sit against it, since we wrote the page.

Juan Bertomeu has practised on this coast since 1991, ICALI number 4643, from offices in Moraira and in Dénia. I am Daniel, the tax adviser of the house, AEDAF number 06838. We work almost entirely with international owners, along the coast from Oliva down to Alicante and with the bulk of it between Oliva and Benidorm, and we take matters across the provinces of Alicante and Valencia. Dénia, Jávea, Moraira, Benissa, Calpe, Altea: that is our patch, and each of the towns we know best has its own site with the detail that only matters there, denia.legal, moraira.legal and javea.legal. You do not have to come to an office for any of it, and most of our clients never do: a power of attorney signed in your own country and legalised with the Hague apostille lets us act while you stay home, and the hiring guide above walks through exactly how.

A first consultation is from 150 euros plus VAT. If your matter is a purchase, our conveyancing for foreign buyers is from 1,600 euros plus VAT for properties up to 500,000 euros. If you are not even sure your matter needs a lawyer, rather than a gestor or a tax adviser, that exact confusion has its own article. And there is more about the firm on our about page.

Honestly, whoever you end up instructing here, run the register check first. Two minutes, official source. It is the cheapest piece of due diligence you will ever do.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check whether a lawyer in Spain is really registered?

Use the public census of Spanish lawyers at censo.abogacia.es, run by the General Council of the profession. Search by name, surname or bar number. Spanish law requires this register of practising lawyers to be public and to show each lawyer's college. If anything looks off, confirm directly with the provincial bar, which for Dénia, Jávea and Moraira is ICALI in Alicante.

Do I need a lawyer based in Dénia or Moraira specifically?

Legally, no. A lawyer registered with any Spanish bar can act anywhere in the country, and no college may demand extra requirements or fees from outside lawyers. What local practice buys you is familiarity: someone who deals with this coast's town halls, registries and notaries every week, and who can meet you in person when it matters.

What must a Spanish lawyer give me in writing before starting work?

Information on fees and costs, preferably in an engagement letter, the hoja de encargo, plus a warning about what a costs order could mean if your matter can reach court. The lawyer must also identify themselves fully, college and bar number included. Skipping these duties is a disciplinary offence carrying fines of up to 10,000 euros.

Can an online legal service charge me before telling me which lawyer will act?

No. Under the statute governing Spanish lawyers, the identity of the lawyer providing an online legal service, and their bar association, must be communicated to you before the service is provided and in any case before any payment is requested. If the payment page comes before the lawyer's name, that is the wrong way round under Spanish law.

How much does an English speaking lawyer cost in Denia or Moraira?

Fees are agreed freely between you and the lawyer. There is no official tariff, and colleges are prohibited from setting one, so always ask for the figures in writing before work starts. As a reference, our own first consultation is from 150 euros plus VAT, and legal fees carry VAT at the general rate of 21 percent.

Can I hire and instruct a Spanish lawyer without travelling to Spain?

Yes, and most of our clients do. A power of attorney signed before a notary in your own country is valid in Spain once legalised with the Hague apostille and officially translated, and from there your lawyer can act while you stay home. The alternative is signing at a Spanish consulate, which requires appearing there in person.

A quick legal note before you go

One last thing, and Juan makes me say it, because this is a law firm and a law firm has to say it. This article is general information, current as of August 2026. It is not legal advice for your matter, and reading it does not make you our client. What it is, honestly, is the check we would want our own parents to run on a coast full of people offering help. Run it on everyone. Us first.

Where these figures come from

About this article

Written by Daniel Bertomeu, tax adviser, AEDAF #06838 and APAFCV #3080, for Expat Abogados. The legal points in this article were reviewed by Juan Bertomeu, abogado, ICALI #4643, in practice since 1991 in Moraira and Dénia.