Honest opinion please

Can anyone help please.  I am looking for honest impartial opinions regarding the work carried out by Maria del Castro.  Having been stung twice before by other Spanish lawyers I am becoming paranoid about my sense of judgement.

Only impartial replies please.

Thank you

I have sent you a PM.

Can't speak more highly of her, think she is the only honest Spanish Lawyer out there;

I haven't had to employ Maria's company personally but all I can say is that Maria has provided me with answers to numerous questions, all without charge via pm's sent through this forum.

She is always very quick to respond with advice, to posts on this forum & I know that if the need did ever arise, it would be Maria that I would look to for legal services.

In my opinion, she is honest, hard working & has her clients interests at heart.

Noreen

I pulled out of a purchase in Spain in 2006 and got better free advice from Maria than the lawyer I was Paying.If I every dreamed about buying again she would be the only one I used. She has given free advice on this forum for years. I would highly recommend her

thank you all for backing Maria up, used her myself and if I ever needed advice she is the first person I would turn to with 100 % confidence.

I find it very comforting to read your opinions on Maria....

But...i would just like to add there is other honest realiable ''spanish'' lawyers out there.

Jane x

Of course there are! There are plenty, plenty of them! Plenty of great, decent, better prepared than me lawyers in Spain!

Maria is right.

It is just that there seems to have been rather a concentration of badly performing, unprofessional and negligent lawyers, swayed by greed and corruption, in the areas where foreigners were rapidly purchasing property.

I too have become paranoid about the honesty of people and also my judgement in making decisions. When a lawyer lies and sets out to mis-lead  you  on such a relatively straight forward task as a house purchase it is the same as if your mother has lied to every childhood question you ever put to her.

Who can you trust? 

 Yes Sandra. You mentioned the key:

There has been a concentration of badly performing, unprofessional and negligent lawyers, swayed by greed and corruption, in the areas where foreigners were rapidly purchasing property.

But Spain has a great legal tradition, with very good Lawyers, Law Proffessors and Judges. Believe me.

I think one of the biggest problems is the sleepy judges because they should be the creme de la creme of the profession and these sleepy judges need to wake up and smell the coffee and appreciate the injustice suffered by so many foreign people at the mercy of the Spanish courts.

I asked a question today to a Spanish lawyer which was does the judge favour the Spanish national over the "stupid" foreigner - of course I was told to stop asking stupid questions - of course not? but I am not so sure?

The Spanish law colleges need to combine and regulate their members and then we need to weed out all those non-qualified professionals who pretend to be lawyers when they are nothing but, at best, glorified gestorias. One typical example was the great Jose Luis Maseda who mortgaged all his clients property and made off with the money. (Benalmadena)

The Police are too slow to act on complaints and the slowness of their investigation means these type of people have months to plan their getaway. This also applies to judges who delay in handing down judgement and then it's too late the assets have vanished!

Spains repuation is in shreds. There is little point saying you have good professors because the proof of the pudding is in the eating!

You are right Faro. Judges are key within the judicial and legal system. You are completely right.

Many things need to be improved.

Many Judges are already working for this cause, if that brings to you some relief. Many of them consider the Judicial Power  is politicized and that there is a clear lack of independence. The main organization of Judges working for this cause has already 600 members.