The new Judicial Map for Portugal, the government masterplan to revolutionise and streamline the country's archaic legal processes, started today, September 1st, 2014.
Looking at the Algarve’s regional capital, Faro, the new court system started operation this morning amid high expectations that all would be working well, judges would have been trained during the courts' summer recess and that the shiny new technology would be installed and working.
Situated in a series of Portacabins at the side of the EN125 at the eastern edge of the city, Faro's court officials greeted their brave new world by having to turn away diligent citizens keen on paying their fines as there was no functioning computer system.
Faro’s District Court is housed in less than impressive surroundings while the court building in the city centre is being refurbished but the inability of its staff to accept payments for fines, or to undertake other simple administrative tasks as there is no computer, gives the impression that the person in charge is not.
As the staff at Faro’s temporary court milled around this morning wondering when the system would kick in, their colleagues across the eastern Algarve today had no trials to administer because the judges had called a halt to such inconveniences while they check and get acquainted with the new computer system.
The new judicial map, which entered into force today, divides the country into 23 districts, based on 18 district capitals and the autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores, and involves a new management model that the Government introduced, an attempt to streamline the court system by speeding up the distribution and allocation of cases and human resources.
Pita Ameixa, an MP from the government’s Socialist opposition said that the government has spent €39 million and all it has achieved is more confusion.
Ameixa said it was a shame the government saw fit to halt the reforms started by the Socrates government which would have been completed at the end of 2012.
Portugal's order of lawyers went one step further and has lodged a criminal complaint against the government for approving the reform legislation.
Of the 311 courts that existed, 20 have shut their doors due to a low number of hearings per year and the courts’ remote locations. The fact that many courts are currently not functioning may lead the public to the conclusion that poor implementation, a lack of training and a lack of will from those working in the judicial system has led to this project falling at the first hurdle.
