A Lisbon judge is reported to be suing a lawyer for ‘moral damages’ which he has set at €40,000.
The case, reports tabloid Correio da Manhã, centres on a legal spat over a fine of €102 that the judge imposed on the lawyer for refusing to pay for a certificate.
If there is any moral to this story, it must be: “do not upset a judge”.
Says CM, the lawyer argued that he shouldn’t need to pay the fine as he felt he was covered by legal aid.
The certificate was needed to “withdraw” from a complaint that he had lodged against a former client who owed him money.
But instead of simply paying it and ‘taking the fine on the nose’, the lawyer filed complaints with the Superior Council of Magistrates and the district attorney general’s office – and thus, according to CM, “the war began”.
Despite the fact that both entities refused to accept the lawyer’s case, the judge felt the complaints were defamatory, and went on the attack.
According to what CM calls “the document of action placed against the lawyer” the judge is demanding €40,000 for moral and patrimonial damages.
He claims he felt “embarrassed and ashamed” by the lawyer’s bids which caused him to suffer “tension, anxiety, anguish, nervousness and periods of great deconcentration, impatience and irritability”.
How he reached the sum of €40,000 for requested damages is not explained.
