Staff Reporter
By Lisa Burgess
GLADSTONE said ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. I say this because I have heard of so many stories of injustice recently
British residents being sent back from Spain without proper paperwork, expat businesses closing because they don’t have the tools or access to proper advice.
Let’s face it, we are all in crisis one way or another. The UK has just entered national lockdown, rules change daily for most countries and even the experts cannot keep abreast of new changes with immediate effect.
For small or medium expat businesses or autonomos they don’t know where to turn, it is a minefield. Even the Spanish cannot get access to social help. Everything is online and crashing on a regular basis. You have to know a good gestor or lawyer to get anywhere.
We can’t sleep at night with the thought of unpaid loans, mortgages, rents, business leases and crisis. How can we all manage? You must face your problems head-on much like I did cancer. No point putting your head in the sand. Once you make that decision to remedy whatever bad situation you are in you won’t look back and you can sleep at night.
I have three friends on speed dial that can’t get back to Spain. They failed to get their residencia and didn’t understand the full repercussions of Brexit. I did. I took a petition to Downing Street for us expats only to be turned away for having stars on our t-shirts, it was a warning signal.
I knew then without the unforeseeable horror of COVID that it would be a mess. It took me a year during chemo to get my residencia and my Irish passport. It was bureaucratic hell.
I face injustice in 2021 but I will fight on as I did with cancer, If I can beat that I can beat anything. I am lucky to have my own personal warrior in the form of Arturo Lopez, my lawyer in Mijas.
He has a general law practice established since 1991, I would give him my highest recommendation and for those in crisis, he can be contacted at [email protected].
Benjamin Disraeli’s words come to mind when I think of the many injustices I decided not to fight and those I must now, he said ‘justice is truth in action’.
Take that action and don’t look back.
