In statements to Lusa, the president of the OA explained that the channel aims to improve communication between lawyers and the institution, in order to “relieve some of the pressure and unease that exists between everyone”.

“There are two public services that receive the highest number of complaints from lawyers, one is AIMA, which is the clear leader in complaints from everyone, followed by the IRN (Institute of Registries and Notaries) and the land registries,” said João Massano.

The Portuguese Bar Association (OA) will receive the complaints and forward them in bulk to AIMA, according to an agreement between the two institutions.

“We will now have this channel, through the Bar Association, for complaints and suggestions given by lawyers,” explained João Massano, emphasising that the creation of this resource, through a form available in each lawyer's reserved area, is not due to a worsening of problems or delays.

“The AIMA problem has not worsened in particular,” but this was “the moment when it was possible to operationalise this channel.”

Currently, legal proceedings related to AIMA are overloading administrative courts due to the lack of response from the agency's services, something João Massano regrets.

“When a lawyer, to get a response from a public service, has no alternative but to resort to a court, it is clear that the public service is not working well,” he stressed.

Reducing litigation

Therefore, the president hopes that this online channel will end up reducing the reasons for litigation.

“This channel aims not only to identify specific situations of malfunction or disrespect for the rights or prerogatives of lawyers,” but also “to achieve a standardisation of understandings among the various AIMA services,” he explained.

“Imagine that there is an AIMA service, for example, on the islands that accepts a document and there is one on the mainland that does not accept the same document,” he exemplified, adding: “this actually happens, and it doesn’t seem to make sense to me.”

According to a statement from the OA, the two institutions wanted to “create a permanent contact channel for sharing information about specific situations that may be reported by lawyers and that may represent constraints on access, non-compliance with rights and prerogatives, and/or discrepancies in regional procedures adopted in relation to the interpretation of the law and validation of documents.”

"The Bar Association considers institutional cooperation to be one of its objectives, in this case for the significant improvement of public services, always starting from the collection of contributions" from its members, "guaranteeing effective access for citizens to these services," it also reads.