Originally from Enforcement of Money Judgments

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I.  PRESENT ATTITUDE TOWARD ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN MONEY JUDGMENTS

A. Describe the receptiveness of your government (including courts) toward enforcement of foreign money judgments.

The Portuguese government has always been receptive to the enforcement of foreign money judgments, as demonstrated by its signature of several treaties with foreign countries. As we will explain below, this means the rules on enforcement of these judgments are very strict, so there are few possibilities for the courts to deny a legal enforcement application.

This approach is based on the fact that Portugal is a country with many emigrants and immigrants, and this means a high number of applications to enforce foreign judgments here. Furthermore, Portugal wants to maintain and increase its commercial relationships with foreign countries and this requires an effective system of enforcement of foreign judgments.

B. Briefly describe recent illustrative attempts, whether successful or unsuccessful, to enforce a foreign money judgment in your country, particularly with regard to enforcement of any judgments from United States courts.

All attempts to enforce judgments from United States courts that have been brought to our notice have been successful. One of those situations was a company from the USA owed money by a company that held assets in Portugal. We were provided with all the documents and, after the US judgment was reviewed, we were able to enforce it and then reach a settlement under which the creditor recovered the entire judgment debt.