The Confederation of Trade and Services, and the Bar Association, say they have received several complaints over the new system of seizing assets and freezing bank accounts, citing several cases of abuse or excess.
The new Code of Civil Procedure, which started in September, meant that enforcement agents could now contact banks directly to start seizure processed which has dramatically increased the number of cases.
The president of the Confederation of Trade and Services, João Vieira Lopes, said that in September he began receiving complaints, noting "a significant number of unjustified seizures with ridiculous values such as €3 or €10 in a system that had become ‘quasi-automatic.'”
The president of the Bar Association said that there are lawyers with seizure orders against them just because they represent a client with a debt.
The Professional Association of Judges admits it has knowledge of the problems related to the identification of debtors, and where there are multiple orders against the same person.
The president of the Chamber of Solicitors who oversees the new system of liens admits he had knowledge of errors but admitted to only 5 out of the many thousands of processes in recent months.
Concerned lawyers and solicitors have had their accounts blocked but the Chamber of Solicitors says it does not know of any cases of abuse or excessive action as reported by the Confederation of Trade and Services.
Comments
Long needed but this article did not make clear that going for the lawyers is because so much dodgy activity is shielded in their secret personal - not client - bank accounts.
How many of us foreigners were assured that it was normal in Portugal to make out our property buying deposit cheques to the seller lawyer's private account not to a fully declared client account ?
When will we have more Portuguese stepping up to the mark and publicly saying that the Troika has actually helped their country tackle the many 'sacred cows' in attempting to get everyone paying their dues and their taxes?