A study into the snail-like pace of Portuguese justice shows that many family and juvenile courts are taking less than three hours to analyze and decide each outcome, including the time taken to hear the case.
The study by the Portuguese Association for Parental Equality and Law of Children is based on data from the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Judicial Council and looked at the number of cases per judge and the average times for each decision.
Paulo Santos from the association commented that on average Portugal’s judges dedicated six to seven hours on each case, but there are cases in the country where the time taken is less three hours.
The areas with the poorest results are those with the fewest judges and overburdened courts do not have a back-up system leading to cases being suspended in order to cope with the volume of new cases.
"Courts with the same number of pending cases may have three times the number of judges," said the association which added that in some cases the courts take more than a 18 months to resolve a case.
The study 'Justice Statistics of Family and Children 2011-2013' concluded that the Family and the Children’s courts took an average of 10 months to solve a case in 2013.
The simplistic conclusion is that courts with more judges get better results but there are still courts in the new ‘judicial map’ (launched last September aiming to sort out staffing levels) which cannot cope with the number of new cases each year, leading to an inevitable and ever-growing backlog.
The numbers need to be looked at again in 2105 to see if the system is working any better after the introduction of the Citius computerised court system.
The union representing court staff say that constant assurances from the Ministry of Justice that an extra 600 staff are ‘on their way’ do not reflect reality and anyway, if such a number had been recruited, each new staff member still needs a minimum of six months training before being let loose on an expectant and increasingly frustrated public.
Comments
It is custom and practice for a local Tribunal to go with the local heavyweight regardless of whether he is right or wrong. It keeps things the way they were. Does not rock the boat.
Certainly any Portuguese Court activity will cost the 'lightweight' outsider a great deal but the assumption is that, having lost, they appeal to the district court. For a re-hearing.
A district court allows the foreigner / outsider to introduce witnesses to prove their case that had been disallowed by the local tribunal.
A win in the district court becomes possible for the outsider but it is only a battle. Not the war. The heavyweight can fall back onto say a Defamation claim. And has all his mates waiting back in the Concelho who will now want to sort out the outsider for 'cheek'.
Apparently advogados and the court system like it this way. A good earner so no change possible.
And what is the breakdown of these 4million cases - how many are original and how many appeals or 'spin-offs' from an original claim?
The time taken on a case is largely dependent on the helpfulness of the staff in the off-shore banking firms and the authorities 'regulating' them.
A Portuguese judge needing to know that his / her bung (and that of any other relevant player like an 'imaginary witness') has arrived safely and is suitably hidden in a relatives name.
Guilt or otherwise is provisionally established earlier in the case during the 'sanitisation stage' .... but is always 'bung' dependent.
So now you know !