The Medieval Portuguese Court System
I have spoken before in these pages about the court system in Portugal.
Apparently a large majority of the population has no faith in the court
system here.
My own experience in the Portuguese courts is dismal. I approached a
solicitor about a problem my neighbour has concerning access to her
home. There is an old roadway to her property with old stone walls, but
the owner of the field it crosses refuses to let her use it, so I
instituted legal proceedings.
The following year I go down to the solicitor to ask what the heck is
going on. A week later he comes back to tell me the lawyer who had
supposedly drafted the court papers has not yet served them on the
court.
This is the problem with life in Portugal. Those people who charge
masses of money for their work dont actually do anything. There simply
isn't any proper grasp of professionalism in this country. You simply
cant let someone get on with a job without supervision. The whole point
of professionalism is that the professional should not need
supervision. Portuguese need constant supervision.
But that isn't my point this week. There is something more interesting
and worrying that I wanted to mention.
Someone only last month was accused of lying in court when all he said
was that he was drunk at the time and didn't remember what went on. He
was not accused of anything, but was only brought in as a witness
against someone else. However, he was fined €400 for lying. He
appealed. He was then told that his appeal was out of time because he
should have appealed before the case was heard.
Now, hold on. Can we have that last statement again: "his appeal was
out of time because he should have appealed before the case was heard."
What on earth is one to make of that? This is a judgment from a judge
in a court case. What medieval cesspit are these jokers in?
The really worrying thing is that the courts are the ultimate arbiter
of right and wrong in a state, and if they are this insane then what
does that say about the underlying, and apparently unenforceable,
morality that underpins the social fabric of the state?
Well, quite clearly it stinks, and has no place in a modern society,
and what it is doing in a country that pretends to be a member of the
EU I cant imagine. Clearly the abused in this instance should be making
a claim to the court in Strasbourg. These people need to be stopped.
Those who think about coming to live here need to grasp this fact
perhaps more than any other in this country. It is certainly worrying
if you intend to do business here.
Another way of putting this is to admit that something is rotten at the
core of this society.
john