Is Litigation Against Spanish Developers Worthwhile?

[GreginLondon]

We won a case against the developer of a community in the Marbella area - the case was heard almost 4 years ago. The judgement took over a year from the hearing before being made (though why, I have no idea - but I am losing any faith or confidence in the Spanish legal system). However, the developer appealed and so we waited. And waited. I have now found out that our lawyer left the practice 15 months ago and it appears that nothing has been done about chasing up our case in that time (I know, I should have chased sooner but I have fallen into the Mañana, Mañana expectation....) I am about to fire a missile at the firm for not informing me that our lawyer had left nor for continuing to follow a case that we've paid a lot of money for already.
Do you have any opinions of the likely scenario - you say above that an appeal would delay a judgement by about 9 months, but it is now about twice that length of time. I am really despairing of any fairness or common sense in Spain and wish I'd never thought about buying there - my daughters have grown up and gone to university so the hoped for amenity of a place in the sun during their teens is now gone! Surely it can't take all this time to hear a straightforward case and make a judgement?!

[aflores]

Hello,

I fully agree with you as we feel the same, on behalf of our clients, where the system fails to deliver justice or at the very least, if not justice, a ruling as if nothing else, it will be bring certainty and a sense of closeness.

You have probably landed your case in the slowest Court of First Instance and tehreafter, in the closest section of the Provicial Audience (Appeal Court). Under these circumstances, the case is likely to take years.

With respect to the ruling on the appeal, it does seem to be taking an awful amount of time. However, the lawyers cannot really be blamed as chasing rarely has any effect on the deciding magistrates, given that they work on a date-of-entry system to ensure that there is no "special" treatment to any lawyer or claimant/defendant in particular. What you could do is find out when is it likely to be issued, more or less, by getting the Procurador to make enquiries. This will have to be done through the lawyer.

[geoff.hackett@virgin.net]

I won my case over 12 months ago and appeal date set for Jan 2013. It seems that developers appeal most decisions on the basis that they gain time and increase the chances that the client runs out of cash as I am told that I atill have to pay all my costs even if the original desion and appeal both go my way. Why do the courts allow this to happen. Surely appeal should not be tolerated purely because the developer does not like the decision and they should lose heavily for wasting more of the courts (and everybody else's) time. Having bought a retirement home, like many, my retirement will be over by the time this is resolved.