161. Civil Justice is Deaf, Blind and Mute in Italy

“I know it will take a long time and I will have to start from scratch with a new trial, but in the end I am trustful I will be refunded for all the fees spent on lawyers for this case.”

These words came from a young goldsmith in the province of Venice in a national TV interview, I heard today, on his odyssey with Italian justice.

And of course every victim of Italian justice, waiting for his case to be heard has to make that public statement because, believe it or not, a judge in Italy is able to find any loop hole, if he has a mind to rule against you even if you are blatantly right. That is why it is impossible for most people involved in cases to speak out democratically against the system of justice in Italy.

Silvio Berlusconi is not the only one to complain about, in his case, the ruthless persistence of Italian justice, but in many cases, the unfair process, manifested by the unwillingness to do justice and unnecessarily holding up cases which is blatantly the paralysis effect of left wing indoctrination.

The Italian system of justice is rather strange, especially the civil law cases. It is certainly incomprehensible to the British or Americans because Italian civil cases are characterized by their infernal odyssey that it takes to obtain justice. It is a near miracle for individuals to obtain justice from an Italian civil court since the people involved could all well be dead before a sentence is passed. A civil case in Italy is worse than that in developing countries or those of medieval times- and that is no exaggeration- if anything it is an understatement.

We all know the blatant miscarriages of justice that take place in developing countries because we are all aware it is open to all kinds of double-dealing so as not to say corruption. However, what to me is adding insult to injury is that in Italy, it all takes place in the light of day. We all know judges dine with the plaintiffs, defenders, with or without their lawyers, even the British papers have remarked upon it, basically because Silvio Berlusconi was involved otherwise this deplorable practice would have gone unnoticed.

Such practises however, are not totally out of keeping with Rompole’s antics at “Pomeroy’s” wine bar in the vicinity of the Old Bailey, Equity Court and Fleet Street or Perry Mason’s unorthodox ways of fraternizing with some witnesses out of court- you can’t really cut off judicial people from interacting with the rest of mankind, otherwise you simply have to kidnap them.

Still, has anyone out there ever wondered why a lawyer or whoever, would want to dine with the judge judging the case? How can anyone believe it is a simple case of loneliness!

Of course day-light attempts at “influencing” a judge is not the only way lawyers and their clients can manoeuvre the judge. Lawyers can make a judge curtail or lengthen a trial at will by a “diplomatic” illness or even “disappearance” of a witness; request extra time for research or preparation- the variations of which are endless; the loss, misplacement of documents by the court, is also a favourite ploy- as indeed occurred to the unfortunate goldsmith from Venice. The said young man had placed a claim for damages against a 27o Euros speeding fine which was erroneously charged to him making him lose half of his license points, five days without a driver’s license and having to cancel his holiday- all having taken place well over six years ago. He has just been awarded 500 Euros damages but he spent three times that amount in lawyer’s fees which he is “trustful” will regain in full after.... heaven knows when... and like he says, he has to start again from scratch- another trial.

Has anyone wondered that if it takes six years to be awarded 500 Euros (without fees reimbursement), how long it could possibly take to be awarded a justified claim for five thousand hundred Euros? Like I said- everyone could be dead by then. I can assure you there’s no other country in the world with a worse civil system of justice and there is no power in Italy that can alter this system. One would have to change the Italian Constitution in order to curtail some of this ridiculous omniscient misplaced power judges have on the Italian citizen and I, as a European citizen, make a plea that the European court take the situation in hand and pull Italy out of this medieval justice system of no justice.