24/07/2012

The article can be read in the text that follows.

“Changing the inventory process: an ongoing proposal”

In a context in which it is intended to comply with the requirements of economic recovery imposed by the Troika and driven by a serious intention of decongesting the courts, the Draft Law Proposal Approving the Legal Regime of the Inventory Process arises. This is a matter of interest to those who have assets to share in Portugal.

The slowness of the sharing processes in the litigious context of divorce and inheritance and the growing congestion of the courts are presented as being the fundamentals for the application of the measures presented by that diploma. Among them, we highlight the exclusive assignment to notaries to direct and decide all issues related to the inventory process; granting applicants full freedom to choose the decision-maker in their case, through the option of any of the notary offices and the removal of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in what concerns the representation of the incapacitated or absent, which are, therefore, necessarily replaced by their legal representatives, curators or guardians.

Basically, it will be a continuation and adaptation to the current context, of what had already been protagonized by Law nº 29/2009 of 29 June (*).

However and despite being avant-garde in its application, the proposal in question has provoked some disagreement with the magistrates and lawyers in Portugal, mainly due to the possibility of calling into question the jurisdictional powers, of exclusive and constitutionalized jurisdiction of the courts. However, they all demand a faster response from the courts, so there is an urgent need to find a consensus solution.

Thus, and although the proposal is in its essence simplistic and avant-garde, in any of the solutions, it is recommended to everyone who has assets to share, monitoring and safe legal support in order to safeguard their rights. In this way, legal certainty will always be guaranteed in complex and difficult problems.

(*) Approves the Inventory Process Regime. Subsequently amended by Law 1/2010 of January 15 and Law No. 44/2010 of September 3.