A few bits from the Chambers site:
(With thanks to Carana).
Read down to the part I underline.
It suggests that while there is an automatic right of appeal, there is not an automatic presumption that the specified grounds of appeal will be accepted.
ETA: penultimate sentence of the quote.
1.3 Costs
During the proceedings both parties are required to make payments on account for costs (calculated by reference to the amount in dispute) and are also responsible for the payment of their own expenses and their own lawyers’ fees.
When the court renders its decision, it determines the total amount of costs (calculated by reference to the amount in dispute and considering, amongst other criteria, the conduct of the parties and the complexity of the matter) and the proportion of costs to be borne by each party, if they are both held partially responsible. If there is only one losing party it shall bear the full amount of the costs. At the end of the proceedings the winning party may request from the losing party the payment of the judicial costs incurred by the former by sending a statement of its costs including the amounts paid for legal tax, expenses, lawyer, and enforcement agent fees. The winning party may request the payment of the expenses and lawyers’ fees, but in the latter case limited to 50% of the amount of court fees paid by all the parties (Cf. Article 533 of the CPC and Articles 25 and 26 of the Judicial Costs Rules).
If the claimant succeeds against multiple defendants, all of them will be liable for paying a certain proportion of the costs and the claimant can only recover costs from each defendant in the same proportion (except if the multiple defendants are considered jointly and severally liable in the court’s judgment).
1.4 Funding
Third-party funding has not been implemented in Portugal and, as far as we know, it has not been used. The principle of contractual freedom provides, though, that legal costs may be paid by a third party, but such party’s right to recover those costs is limited to the agreement reached with the party in the proceedings. In other words, the third party is not entitled to recover such costs within the proceedings, because only the parties to the proceedings are bound by the court order.
An arrangement whereby the lawyer’s fees exclusively depend on the outcome of the dispute is forbidden by the Portuguese Bar Association Code (Cf. Article 101).
Attorneys’ fees may be composed of a fixed part (according to criteria such as the time spent, the complexity of the issue or the importance of the service provided) that may be complemented by a success fee in view of the results obtained.
2.4 The initial complaint
The initial complaint must comply with several requirements (Cf. Article 552 of the CPC) and should:
– Designate the court in which the lawsuit is filed and identify the parties, indicating their names, residence or offices and, if possible, civil and tax identification numbers, professions and workplaces;
– Indicate the business address of the plaintiff’s lawyer;
– Indicate the type of proceedings (“forma de processo”);
– State the cause of action (“causa de pedir”), which includes the facts and legal arguments supporting the claim;
– State the request (“pedido”) at the end of the initial claim;
– State the value of the claim (“valor da causa”);
– Indicate the list of witnesses and other means of evidence.
Relevant evidential documents, as well as any power of attorney, and proof of payment of court fees, must be presented together with the initial claim.
In most cases, the initial claim and annexes are submitted to court through an online platform (referred to as “citius”).
The plaintiff may unilaterally change the cause of action and the request presented in the initial claim (by means of an ad hoc request) in the following cases (Cf. Articles 264 and 265 of the CPC).The plaintiff may:
– Alter the cause of action if there is a confession made by the defendant and accepted by the plaintiff during the lawsuit. The alteration request should be made within ten days of the acceptance;
– Reduce the request for damages. This may be requested at any time;
– Until the end of the trial in the first instance court, extend or develop the request provided that such extension or development is the result of the primary request.
If the defendant agrees, the plaintiff can change the cause of action and/or request at any time in the first court instance and appellate court.
When confronted with supervening facts (occurring after the submission of the initial claim or the defence, or acknowledged by the party only after the submission), any party may present supervening applications (“articulados supervenientes”) to the court, exposing such facts, prior to the end of the trial in first instance.
5.2 Evidence
As a general rule each party has the burden of submitting and proving those facts upon which his/her claim or defence is based (Cf. Article 342 of the CC). Everything that remains uncontested by the other party is considered proven, and only contested facts are subject to the taking of evidence. If a fact is contested by the opponent, the other party must describe the evidence upon which it intends to rely to prove that fact. If necessary, the court will then render an order for the taking of such evidence and evaluate the outcome.
Pursuant to the approval of the new Civil Procedure Code in force as of September, 2013, all evidence should be presented by the parties with their written statements and must be presented before the trial hearing (Cf. Article 552 of the CPC). In principle, after that the proper moment to present any other means of evidence or to modify any of those previously presented will be at a pretrial hearing (“audiência prévia”), typically held between the judge and the opposing counsel to establish the main facts under dispute and to organise (and, if possible, schedule) the next steps of the proceedings.
Prior to the approval of this new statute, the parties often held particular forms of evidence until the trial stage for strategic purposes in order to surprise the counterpart or a certain witness, and it was actually possible to bring new documents to the case at any moment, albeit upon payment of a certain fine.
Now, as from September 2013, the only exceptions to this general rule are:
– Up to 20 days before trial, the parties can alter or increase (in light of the legally established limit) their list of witnesses. Should this be the case, the counterparty will have five days to amend his/her own list of witnesses accordingly. It is noteworthy that, contrary to what occurs with written witness statements or within the pretrial hearing, any and all witnesses resulting from these subsequent amendments will necessarily have to be brought before the court by the appointing party, as it will not be possible to request that the court summon them for this purpose.
In addition, up to 20 days before the trial, the parties can file documents that were not presented along with the written statement they refer to at the risk of a penalty (except when they prove that they were not able to present them before).
After that, and even during the trial, the parties can only present documents that could not have been presented earlier and that only became necessary due to a recent and subsequent event. This was already possible within our former Civil Procedure Code, but the rule was seldom used, as the courts freely admitted the presentation of documents at any time on payment of a fine.
Reports of lawyers, professors or technicians can be presented at any time of the proceedings before first instance courts.
Judicial inspections of the place where the facts that are disputed occurred, or of the things or persons at issue, may also occur at any stage of the proceedings and, especially when suggested by the court, may also be requested and conducted during trial.
In addition, at any time of the proceedings the court itself can summon a witness to testify if it is led to believe that a certain person, who was not called by the parties, may be aware of facts relevant to the case.
7. Damages & Judgment
7.1 Rules relating to damages
The general rule is that the party obliged to compensate for damages must restore the situation to that which would have existed if the event that led to the damage had not occurred (Cf. Article 562 of the CC). Whenever this is not possible, the indemnity should be calculated in terms of monetary value (Cf. Article 566 of the CC).
The compensation should include the loss suffered directly as a result of the event that led to the damages and also any profits that the injured party failed to obtain as a consequence of that event (Cf. Article 564 of the CC). The indemnity may also include future damages, if foreseeable.
Compensation for moral damages may be awarded. The amount of this compensation is determined on grounds of equity (Cf. Article 496 of the CC).
The party claiming for damages does not need to determine the exact extent of the damages. The party may ask for more damages if in the course of the lawsuit it concludes that the existing damages are higher than the ones previously asked for (Cf. Article 569 of the CC).
When the party´s liability is based on negligence and the extent to which they were at fault, the financial situation of the plaintiff and of the defendant and other circumstances justify that option; the indemnity may be determined on grounds of equity in an amount lower than the existing damages (Cf. Article 494 of the CC).
Portuguese law does not allow punitive damages in the same way as is possible under US law. However, Portuguese law allows parties to agree that, in the event of default, the party in default will be bound to pay liquidated damages (meaning the setting of an amount intended to be an estimation of the future damages likely to occur) or real penalty clauses (in the sense of setting an amount which is not intended to be an estimation of future damages but rather a real penalty for default). Both the amounts of liquidated damages and penalty clauses are subject to possible reductions by the court at the request of the party which is bound to pay, if they are found to be manifestly excessive.
7.2 The collection of interest
With regard to contractual liability cases, when the obligation is already due, a party may collect interest based on the period before judgment is entered. However, this does not occur in non-contractual liability cases. In non-contractual liability cases interest is only due from the moment the defendant is summoned.
In both contractual and non-contractual liability cases a party may collect interest accruing after judgment is entered.
8. Appeal
8.1 Grounds for appeal
The general rule is that a party may appeal to the court of second instance (“Tribunal da Relação”) when the value of the lawsuit is higher than EUR5,000 and the decision is unfavourable to the appealing party in an amount higher than EUR2,500.01 (Cf. Article 629 of the CPC). The court of second instance decides both on legal and factual issues.
A party may appeal to the Supreme Court when the value of the lawsuit is higher than EUR30,000 and the decision is unfavourable to the appealing party in an amount higher than EUR15,000.01.
The Supreme Court only rules on legal issues and, in most cases, cannot revoke the second instance judgment concerning the proven facts.
In most cases the parties cannot move to the Supreme Court if the first and the second instance courts have issued identical decisions with similar grounds.
The general rule is that the appeal does not suspend the proceedings unless the appealing party pays a deposit or presents a bank guarantee.
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8.2 Time limits and triggering events
The general rule is that the appealing party has 30 days to appeal to the higher court in the event that the appeal is to the court of second instance (Cf. Article 638 of the CPC). If the appeal includes the impeachment of the proven facts through a review of the recorded witnesses or party statements, then the appealing party has 40 days to appeal.
However, in some specific cases (e.g. freezing orders) the appealing party has only 15 days to appeal.
The defendant in the appeal always has the same term to present an answer.
The first instance court will then decide whether the appeal should be accepted. If it is accepted, the case is sent to the higher court.
On the basis of historic evidence, it is estimated that the second instance courts take on average between six months and one year to decide an appeal, and that the Supreme Court will take on average three to six months to issue a final decision.
