Prosecutors in Costa Rica

Anyone have experience with lawsuit in Costa Rica Santa Cruz where they change prosecutors on your case twice so each time they need to review and request more documents?  The legal system is Very expensive and time consuming to navigate because of this, if this is par for the course. The good news is that as time goes on more lawsuits have been filed regarding the development that swindled us and left us with a incomplete home requiring replacements, repairs and finishing in a development that advertised all inclusive community in 2008 that has never accomplished one amenity, a handful of houses with varying problems, an on site dump, water problems and a Covid-19 outbreak in their workers because they truck them in from Nicaragua and pack them in substandard living arrangements.

Can't wait to see them receive justice and get sent back to their home countries.

Thanks for your input.

Everyone I know who has talked about suing or actually sued someone says that suing someone here is a nightmare that can go on for years.
I talked to a guy the other day who wanted to sue a mechanic for stealing a part off his car which cost a couple hundred dollars. The lawyer he went to told him that it was absolutely not practical to do so.

The man who was telling me the story  said, what kind of attorney will tell you that you shouldn't sue someone who stole from you?

I didn't have time to go into it with him but I wanted to answer, "an attorney who knows how things work in Costa Rica!"

It would be crazy to sue someone for a couple hundred dollars. You would spend 10 times that amount in your time and energy and attorney.

I do know your story, and I hope that you do win and it doesn't take too long.

Someone on  another web page was considering buying in that development the other day, and I told them to come here and look for your thread. I have no idea if they did or not.

Yes it has been expensive, long and full of excuses. We thought with three different attorneys we would have oversight. I can't say that they have done anything wrong but I can say we were asked to sign a 6 month contract that would go month to month afterwards because the criminal attorney felt at that time we probably wouldn't need an attorney as it would be in the prosecutors hands and we could just let him finish it out (the attorneys words). Once it became month to month we had three prosecutor changes, had to have documents translated twice which took weeks each and then time to submit and more time to review by EACH prosecutor. The development is run with arrogance and egregious violation of constitutional rights (per our attorneys words) and refuses to return the attorneys phone calls (their attorney) which creates such a feeling of known corruption whether it is actual or not. They even harassed a young family who is also living in an unfinished home and has been threatened and mistreated by them. It is hard to believe anyone would consider buying there-it is a literal ghost town and after 6 years still no gate and admittedly the closed by CEO that the guards are not actual guards they are just people they employ to watch the roads and bully (and enter and empty our home) and whatever else but they must be asleep and like living their lives that way. I feel for each new person that gets taken (we hear of it, usually by the person) but some people don't want help. Sad. Thanks for your well wishes. We are moving forward, and doing all we can to stop them from continuing this, and reconstructing  our home and finishing it and pursuing restitution from their business practices. I'll keep you posted!

We were involved in a bogus lawsuit regarding property lines - took 4 years.  The Court system needs an overhaul especially when it comes to property issues.  All the best!

Yes. Trying to figure who is worse- the crooks, the lawyers or the courts. My best advice is eyes wide open when investing in CR.  Love the country but learning lesson after lesson. It's a great place to lose big if you're honest and win big if you're not.

cratedivision wrote:

We were involved in a bogus lawsuit regarding property lines - took 4 years.  The Court system needs an overhaul especially when it comes to property issues.  All the best!


Everything here involving law and order and justice needs an overhaul! The government operates like a 3rd world country from 20 years ago! Paper, paper and more paper. They are  moving into computer/net stuff but often very poorly executed.
SOOO... the thing is to AVOID getting into a problem like JustAgirl got into!
CHECK OUT ALL THE NAMES AND PEOPLE INVOLVED and CORPORATIONS INVOLVED in a "development". Unfortunately, many are crooks and sleazy con artists. Not all and I'm not saying anyone is or isn't, here on this thread.
Just be aware that it's often not Ticos that cheat you but Americans and Canadians!

You MUST DO much "due diligence" when buying here, ESPECIALLY in a "development". I may be prejudiced, but there is much less risk buying a titled lot and building your own home! But even then you have to do your due diligence.

At least if you build your own home it's YOU who decides how its built, with what materials etc. And you can research what is good and how to do it, even if you know Nothing.

We knew nothing when we bought and built here yet we had zero problems with the process. We did our research and we were here every day or almost every day during construction and it isn't brain surgery. Just study the plans, know what is supposed to go where, make sure they use quality materials and use "American standards" for plumbing and electricity, etc.

Anyone who wants to build here contact me via PM (click my Icon and go to Messages) and I'll give you some pointers that I gathered in my own journey to do that. Or just create a new thread about it and let me know by PM and I'll answer publicly.