Supreme Court rules against the McCanns in damages case.

[Robittybob1]

Have you forgotten the failure rate in cases from the UK ?

Why should this one fail when the outcome from the SC seems so blatantly incorrect.

[Mr Gray]

Have you forgotten the failure rate in cases from the UK ?

I haven't forgotten anything
The SC have handed the McCanns a very strong case

[Alice Purjorick]

Maybe it's the last throw of the dice having just received the bill from the Portuguese Courts and so on.
May be the Portuguese Supreme Court works like ours who knows?

https://www.supremecourt.uk/about/judicial-conduct-and-complaints.html

National court system
The Portuguese judicial system includes judicial courts and administrative courts, both of them falling within the appellate jurisdictions of two supreme courts: respectively, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Administrative Supreme Court.
Despite the separation by subject matter, these two courts’ rules and principles are exactly the same. Both the judicial courts and the administrative ones are independent and judge exclusively according to the law.
There is still one higher judicial authority, the Constitutional Court, whose competence is defined ratione materia and only judges issues related to the constitutionality of the rules themselves or as they have been applied by common courts.
1
As for the judicial courts, these include 3 levels of judicial courts: the lower courts Tribunais de
Primeira Instância (Courts of first instance), the second instance courts Tribunais de Relação
(Courts of Appeal), and the Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal de Justiça).
The lower courts decide over the majority of disputes, and an appeal to a second instance court
can be made depending on the monetary value and issues being disputed, except when personal
rights (e.g. family cases) are under trial (in these cases appeals can be allowed notwithstanding
the monetary value at issue).
The second instance courts decide mainly the appeals of the decisions of the lower courts. But
they also decide other lawsuits. Amongst those issues these are the most important: the cases
against law judges, military judges, district-attorneys, in relation to their functions; the crimes
perpetrated by these officials; and lawsuits related to the international judiciary cooperation in
criminal matters.
The supreme court of justice is designed to judge appeals from the lower courts, but also the
following: cases against judges of the supreme court and district-attorneys regarding the official
actions within the jurisdiction of the courts; crimes perpetrated by these judges and districtattorneys
related to their official functions; matters of habeas corpus related with illegal arrests;
among other things.
In the appellate system there are essentially two types of appeals that are subdivided into two
categories:
 ordinary appeals – those appeals that are presented within a period of 30 days after the
sentence notification;
 appeal to the merits of the case with this appeal, a losing party tries to obtain a new
decision about the merits of the sentence of the lower courts in the second instance
courts;
 appeal to the higher courts; with this appeal, a losing party can obtain a new decision
regarding the merits of the sentence passed by a second instance by application to the
Supreme Court.
 extraordinary appeals – those appeals that are presented after that period of 30 days;
2
 appeal to unify the jurisprudence; with this appeal, the parties can present the appeal to
the plenary of the Supreme Court when this court has decided differently in a previous
case, about the same legislation and about the same fundamental question of law;
 revision appeal; with this appeal the parties can apply to have the decision of a lower
courts, or of a second instance courts, re-evaluated under very strict circumstances,
namely:
- another sentence as considered proved that the previous decision was the result of a
crime committed by the deciding judge;
- a document, judicial act, expert opinion, arbitrator was false or untrue, and determined
(influenced) the sentence and this issue was not discussed in the previous process;
- a document that the party was unaware of, or could not have knowledge of, and, is so
pivotal to that it could change the previous decision to be in favour of the losing party;
- the transaction, confession, desistance was invalid;
- the previous decision is incompatible with a final decision of an international court that
has binding application; or
- the dispute was decided based upon a simulated act of the parties and the court was not
aware of that simulation.
Regarding administrative courts, these are also divided into three levels: the lower courts, the
second instance courts and the Administrative Supreme Court.
The criteria to divide the jurisdiction among those three levels are the same as explained above
for judicial courts and the rules related to appeals are similar given that the administrative appeal
system is mainly the same as the established in the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP).
When it comes to general rules related to appeals, it has to underline that also before
administrative courts generally the appellant must present a reasoned request within 30 days after
the appealed decision came to his/her knowledge.
Usually the appeal does not suspend the court’s decision but there are some exceptions.
3
Most of the decisions do admit only one, not two successive appeals. However, the administrative
judicial system also recognises appeals to unify the jurisprudence (recurso de uniformização de
jurisprudência) before the plenary of the Administrative Supreme Court.
As far as the proceedings before the Constitutional Court are concerned, the following can be
stated. Appeals against judicial decisions made to the Constitutional Court are restricted to
questions raised regarding unconstitutionality or illegality.
Appeals before the Constitutional Court may be presented by individuals in circumstances such
as the following court decisions:
- rejecting the application of a rule on the grounds of unconstitutionality;
- applying a rule where the unconstitutionality of which has been raised during the
proceedings.
Deadlines are however more strict and an appeal with the Constitutional Court must be filed
within 10 days. This appeal interrupts the period for filing other appeals that may be made to the
decision, which may then be filed after interruption has ceased. Once the appeal is accepted
deadline for allegations are 30 days as from the respective notification.
The decision on the appeal determines res judicata regarding the question of unconstitutionality
or illegality. Should the Constitutional Court find the appeal to be well-founded, even if only
partially, the proceedings drop back to the court from which they came, so that this same court,
depending on the case, can change the decision or have it changed in agreement with the
judgement on the question of unconstitutionality or illegality.

[Mr Gray]

The Ciprianos got a bashing and what's more they deserved it.

Your idea of justice is out of step with any civilised legal system but in step with that of Portugal
The SC need a lesson in Justice

[Alice Purjorick]

I haven't forgotten anything
The SC have handed the McCanns a very strong case

To do what precisely?

[Mr Gray]

To do what precisely?

Read the post made by some very intelligent and well informed posters on here

[Alice Purjorick]

Read the post made by some very intelligent and well informed posters on here

Yeah! done that. They are long on speculation and short on reasoned argument.

[Mr Gray]

Yeah! done that. They are long on speculation and short on reasoned argument.

Then what further clarification do you need

[Alice Purjorick]

Then what further clarification do you need

I thought a gentleman of your calibre would be able to tell us which body precisely the complaint had to be made to and the nature of the complaint.
So far I see abstracts from what has been said in the press plus a lot of speculation along the lines of "we wuz right the sceptics wuz wrong just you wait an' see". With all due respect you have saying that sort of thing for approaching 4 years to my knowledge.
I might be handy to know the foundation upon which the belief is based.

BTW this is good for a laugh:
http://portugalresident.com/hysteria-mounts-as-mccann-parents-revealed-to-be-%E2%80%9Cfighting%E2%80%9D-defeat-in-portugal%E2%80%99s-supreme-court

[stephen25000]

Why should this one fail when the outcome from the SC seems so blatantly incorrect.

It was judged on law.

Try to comprehend that, outside your bias in favour of the McCanns.

[stephen25000]

I haven't forgotten anything
The SC have handed the McCanns a very strong case

Incorrect, as per normal.

[Angelo222]

You think beating suspects in police custody to a point of near blindness while tied to a chair with a bag over their head is acceptable police-conduct, do you?

Well if you bash a child's brains out against a brick wall you get all that you deserve.

[Angelo222]

From what we have seen they have said the McCanns are still suspects
They have said the McCanns do not have the right to be considered innocent

I don't recall reading anything in the judgement which claimed they were suspects.  Stating that they failed to demonstrate their innocence is a different matter.

[Angelo222]

It isn't over yet
Then there is still the ECHR
Where the McCanns have an excellent case after the debacle of the SC judgement
I've been doing some reading and if the McCanns won in Europe the Portuguese govt would be forced to reimburse them for any losses suffered
So they would have to pay the McCanns their compensation plus any other payments to GA

That's fantasyland, they could never win any case against Portugal in the ECHR in the current political climate.

[Angelo222]

I haven't forgotten anything
The SC have handed the McCanns a very strong case

Rubbish!!