Fair Translation vs Unfair Justice

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

I don't know if I'm posting this question in the right place, anyway here it goes:

I've provided a translation service to a court on October 2006. I have sent the translation along with my fees too much before the deadline. I've fulfilled all the requirements, because it is not the first time I work for courts.

The thing is that I only received the payment for this service last year on November. I made various phone calls to the court since 2006 until last year, and I was told only in this last call, that they lost the fees form issued by the court.

I have asked help to some colleagues, but unfortunately I had no answers. What I would like to know is if I can ask for a compensation for all expenses that I had in phone calls/letters, because... when a citizen has something to pay and he/she fails in his/her payment they are punished, right? They pay what they owe to the State plus an amount setted as fine or something. Usually this works like this!

Is Justice fair?! :mad: I hate this world!

Thanks for all your answers.

Faraó

I guess the payment for extra costs would depend on the country you are in. I live in Argentina and the Justice system is really slow and the whole process could end up being expensive compared to the money that you are claiming. I think it is worth the try anyway.

All I can say is that situations like this are very common in all aspects of business. Some people love to get paid for their work, but when they have to pay they just think it's not that important. It's better to loose some of this sort of clients, they just give you headaches. Of course, loose them after they pay all they owe!
Good luck!

Hi Veronica and thank you for your answer.
I'm in Europe and fighting against Justice itself is hard no matter where we are. The thing here isn't a late payment and extra expenses I had only, but the lack of ethics and discourtesy or disrespect mainly.
Yes, I said to myself that I won't work anymore with this court law. That's for sure.
I thought institutions like these ones should protect our rights, and here's the result!