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After the controversy of ‘Operation Lex’, which involves high court judges accused of suspicion of corruption and abuse of power linked to the electronic distribution of court cases, the PSD now presents a law proposal to change the system of distribution of court cases. Marta Duarte, partner of CCA’s Litigation and Arbitration Department, writes an opinion piece for Jornal de Negócios, in which she analyses the party's law proposal and comments on its effectiveness in restoring citizens' confidence in justice.
"The intention is good and this law focuses, in fact, on the aspects that deserve attention. However, the new system proposed, in addition to halving the daily distribution of cases - where there were two daily distributions, now there is only one - may prove to be too heavy for a system that we intend to be faster", explains Marta Duarte.
As to whether this change is sufficient to regain the confidence of the Portuguese in the judicial system, the CCA partner considers that no, "when it becomes public that magistrates of one of the higher courts may have vitiated the results of decisions in exchange of advantages, confidence in justice collapses like a house of cards and this house of cards, unfortunately, cannot be rebuilt with the change of the system of distribution of cases. Much more is needed".
Marta Duarte adds that "it is urgent to recover the transparency and efficiency of justice in Portugal in order to regain the confidence of citizens, which will only be possible through a paradigm shift in the system itself and in judicial agents, who should be closer to citizens so that the idea that there is a justice with two weights and two measures - one for the rich and the other for the poor - is definitively abandoned".
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- Jornal de Negócios