Portugal again has been condemned and fined by the European Court of Human Rights over the country’s lethargic justice system relating to four new cases which had been listed as being particularly poor examples of Portugal’s justice system, cases that have been languishing in the Portuguese courts for years.
The total level of fines was low but the point has been made time and time again that a key aspect of a civilised society is the right of its citizens to have access to a fair and timely system of justice. This is not happening in Portugal and many litigants with sensible claims are deterred from entering into a lifetime of lawyer's fees by actually going to court.
In Portugal the concept of timely justice is still a pipe dream as in one case, judged to be on the slow side, João Aníbal Ratinho had resorted to the court system to collect a commercial debt. His case took 17 years, according to Jorge de Jesus Ferreira Alves, a lawyer specialising in European Law, who brought three of the four actions that today resulted in the Portuguese State receiving conviction and censure.
The lawyer said that currently the European Court of Human Rights itself has 70 cases pending, most of which are for delays in the Portuguese justice system.
The João Aníbal Ratinho case started on March 26, 1997 as he tried to collect a debt of €12,740 from a company. After several procedural delays, the latest information from the court as in June 2013 was that the case was still ‘pending’ in the Portuguese court system.
The European Court found this was a violation of the Human Rights Convention, and ordered the Portuguese State to pay Sr. Ratinho a total of €13,740.
Another case was brought by Duarte José Trigo Saraiva, whose proceedings against the Ministry of Finance in 2004 in a case relating to the calculation of his pension. This action at least has ended, albeit only in May, 2012. The Portuguese State in his case was ordered to pay compensation of €4,900.
The Maria do Sameiro Alves case saw her taking the state to court over a land issue in 2005. The European Court ordered that she be paid compensation of €2,000 for the delay in justice.
For Tomásia Vieira Gomes Bezerra, born in Silves and residing in Bonn, the European Court found a delay in justice but she received no compensation as none had been asked for.
In all three cases the European Court held that, in addition to breaching Article 6 of the Convention related to the speed of justice, there had also been violations of Article 13 of the Convention which obliges Portugal and other states to have means and mechanisms available to citizens to complain, fight against and resolve issues relating to the snail-like speed of Portugal’s courts.
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See also: http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/6-timeshare-buyers-paid-compensation-for-slow-justice
