WE DEFEND THOSE WHO BUILD. WE PROTECT WHAT MATTERS.
EVERY CASE IS TREATED AS IF IT WERE THE ONLY ONE.
Three decades of legal experience dedicated to defending our clients' interests.
CRIMINAL LAW AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFENCES
Legal support in criminal and administrative penalty proceedings, focusing on the defence of the client's rights, rapid response, and the protection of their position before authorities, courts, and administrative bodies.
Need legal support?
Get in touch with our team for clear, rigorous legal support tailored to your case.
(National landline call)
The Experience Behind Our Practice
Over 30 Years of Consolidated Experience
With more than three decades of legal practice, we combine strong legal knowledge, extensive practical experience, and a mature understanding of the challenges faced by businesses, individuals, and investors.
Rigorous Legal Expertise with Close Client Support
Every case is handled with attention to detail, technical precision, and strategic focus, ensuring personalized and close support throughout every stage of the process.
International Presence and Coordinated Legal Assistance
Through a network of strategic partnerships across Portuguese-speaking and European markets, the firm provides coordinated legal support for both national and international matters and operations.
CRIMINAL LAW AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFENCES
When you are called to answer in criminal proceedings or receive a notice to pay a fine, the impact can be immediate and serious.
Often what is at stake is your reputation, your peace of mind, your professional life, your assets, and your freedom to make your own decisions. This area of law governs exactly those situations, drawing a line between crimes, which are tried in criminal proceedings, and administrative offences, which are punished mainly by fines and follow a regime of their own.
At Armandino Lopes Advogados, we assist clients in criminal and regulatory offence proceedings with a firm, discreet and strategically driven approach. In many cases, the most important thing is to act early, to understand exactly what is at stake, to protect the client’s position from the very first moment and to avoid hasty decisions.
A notice, a summons, being formally named as a suspect, a charge, a search, a coercive measure or an administrative decision imposing a fine should never be taken lightly.Â
If you are looking for legal support in criminal law and administrative offences in Guimarães or anywhere in Portugal, having a lawyer alongside you can be decisive right from the start. In criminal matters, the defense strategy begins long before the trial. The way you respond to a summons, give statements, look at the evidence, react to a coercive measure, or structure your defense can deeply shape the course of the proceedings.Â
This is also an area where it is important to draw a clear line around the nature of the problem. Not every infringement is a crime, and not every administrative notification can be handled in the same way.
There are proceedings for road traffic, tax, employment, economic, environmental, and administrative offences, each with its own rules, though all built on the general regime where there is no special rule in place. In certain criminal cases there may also be room for alternative mechanisms, such as criminal mediation, available through the public criminal mediation system where the law allows.
At Armandino Lopes Advogados, we handle these matters with the rigor they demand and with the awareness that, for the client, what is at stake is never just rules or deadlines, but real consequences for their personal, professional, and financial life. The goal is clear: to understand the proceedings, protect the client's position, and build the legal response best suited to each case.
Situations where legal support is essential
Being formally named as a defendant
Once someone is formally named as a defendant, they become a party to the criminal proceedings, with rights and duties of their own. From that moment on, having legal support becomes especially important.
Notifications in criminal proceedings
Summonses, notices to appear, requests for clarification, or communications from the Public Prosecutor's Office should be looked at without delay.
Coercive measures
Whenever the measures in play involve a written identity and residence undertaking, periodic check-ins with the authorities, or other restrictions, it is essential to understand what they mean and how to respond.
Criminal charge
When the case moves on to formal charges, the evidence, the legal classification of the facts, and the defense strategy all need to be carefully assessed.
Property-related crimes
Situations involving misappropriation, damage, fraud, breach of trust, or other conduct affecting assets call for a well-structured technical defense.
Administrative offences
When an administrative authority imposes or seeks to impose a fine, it is important to look at whether the decision is lawful, what the evidence shows, and what routes of response are available.
Economic offences
Infringements in a business, commercial, or economic setting can give rise to proceedings of their own, often carrying substantial fines.
Judicial challenge of administrative decisions
When an administrative authority imposes a fine, it may be possible to challenge the decision in court within the legal time limit.
In-Person or Online Legal Support
Do you need legal support?
Schedule a consultation with our firm and receive clear, professional guidance tailored to your case.
About Us
More Than Three Decades of Strategic Legal Practice
Armandino Lopes Advogados is a law firm headquartered in Guimarães, with offices in Porto and Maputo, founded in 1995. With more than three decades of activity, the firm combines consolidated legal experience with an international outlook, advising businesses, private clients, and investors in Portugal and across Portuguese-speaking markets.
Our practice covers Civil, Tax, Administrative, Commercial, Employment, Insolvency and Corporate Restructuring, Family, and Foreign Investment, with particular expertise in tax litigation and the defense of companies before the Tax Authorities and Social Security.
Through a network of partnerships with law firms in Lisbon, Vigo, Madrid, Paris, Luanda, São Paulo, Macau, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago, we provide our clients with coordinated legal assistance across the markets where they operate or intend to invest.
This international positioning is further strengthened through collaboration agreements with professors and academics from Universidade Portucalense, the Faculty of Law of the University of Porto, the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, and the Catholic University of Porto, maintaining a close connection to academia and leading legal scholarship.
Rigor, proximity, and results. That is what defines us.
0
+
Years of Experience
0
+
Pratice Areas
0
Offices and Partnerships
0
+
Sectors of Activity
A Rigorous Legal Approach, From Assessment to Representation
1.
Assessment
We begin by understanding the facts, reviewing the documentation, and identifying legal risks, relevant deadlines, and the full scope of the situation.
2.
Strategy
We define the most appropriate approach for the case, based on the client’s objectives, the applicable legal framework, and the best way to protect their interests.
3.
Action
We handle the matter with technical rigor, whether through negotiation, contract drafting, document regularization, dealings with public authorities, or litigation proceedings.
4.
Ongoing Support
We keep the client informed and supported throughout every stage of the process, with close communication, clarity, and a focus on achieving a legally sound solution.
In-Person or Online Legal Support
Rigor, experience and confidentiality
Schedule a consultation with our firm and receive clear, professional guidance tailored to your case.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is criminal and administrative offence law?
It is the area of law that deals, on the one hand, with crimes and criminal procedure, and on the other, with administrative offences and the fines imposed by administrative authorities. In Portugal, the main framework is found in the Criminal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the General Regime on Administrative Offences (respectively, Código Penal, Código de Processo Penal and Regime Geral das Contraordenações).
What is the difference between a crime and an administrative offence?
A crime belongs to the criminal domain and can lead to criminal penalties. An administrative offence usually corresponds to an infringement punished by a fine and follows its own administrative-sanctions regime, although it can be reviewed by the courts.
Who might need support in this area?
ï‚·Anyone, whether an individual or a business, faced with a criminal investigation, charges, trial, fine, administrative sanction, or the need to respond to a public authority's decision in a sanctions matter.
Who can help with criminal and administrative offence law matters?
ï‚·A lawyer experienced in criminal procedure, criminal defense, administrative offences, and procedural strategy can guide you through these matters with discretion and assertiveness. Armandino Lopes Advogados provides legal advice in this area with a focus on defending the client's rights, protecting their position in the proceedings, and shaping the legal response best suited to each case.