“The Spanish legal system is excruciatingly slow (i.e. largely at a standstill) and there’s a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases throughout Spain, which means that it takes years for many cases to come to court. Even local courts can take five years to hear a case, although delays are usually up to two years for minor offences and up to four years for serious offences.

This means that you should do everything possible to avoid going to court by taking every conceivable precaution when doing business in Spain, i.e. obtaining expert legal advice in advance.

If things do go wrong it can take years to achieve satisfaction and in the case of fraud the chances are that those responsible will have either gone broke or disappeared (or even died!).”

If you thought that was bad, wait until you read this (my caps) …

“Note that even when you have a foolproof case there’s no guarantee of winning and it may be better to write off a loss as experience. LOCAL COURTS, JUDGES AND LAWYERS FREQUENTLY ABUSE THE SYSTEM TO THEIR OWN ENDS AND ALMOST ANYONE WITH ENOUGH MONEY OR EXPERTISE CAN USE THE LAW TO THEIR OWN ADVANTAGE. In recent years, public confidence in Spain’s legal system has been rocked by a succession of scandals.”

I also repeat from the quote – “… when you have a foolproof case there’s no guarantee of winning and it may be better to write off a loss as experience.” What *exactly* is Mr Hampshire saying here?

Now, I’m not concluding that these comments apply to the behaviour of Chupa Chups (past or present), but it is interesting to read someone else’s take on the machinations of the Spanish legal system.

And he’s not alone. Here’s another passage taken from:

‘You & the law in Spain’, by David Searl
2002, 13 ed., pg. 283

“With a little luck, you won’t have anything to do with courts and judges in Spain. Taking a case through court can be frustrating and time consuming. The mills of justice tend to grind exceedingly slowly. Spanish courts have been reprimanded and fined by the European Union for the slowness of their proceedings.”

Deary me.

John
BarcaBlog