Costa Rica's Attorney General Emilia Navas filed a criminal case against former two-time president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, in relation to the Crucitas gold mine case, the information was confirmed by the Public Ministry. Arias is facing charges for malfeasance (breach of public duty), in an act that took place October 2008, when he signed a decree declaring the Crucitas gold mine a “projec...

The San Jose Trial Court sentenced Costa Rican attorney Carlos Roberto Loría Quirós to 8 years of prison and ordered he returns a total of $41 million USD that corresponded to the inheritance of German citizen Wolff Ulrich Schneider who had investments in the country. This case dates back to 2004 when Schneider passed-away of natural causes while he was in Belgium; his investments in Costa Rica...

Buying property in Costa Rica involves a prior process called Due Diligence. This involves making a study of the status of the property in the Land Registry, checking for the existence of encumbrances and easements, analyzing the plot map, verifying that municipal taxes are paid, and getting a document certifying that the property is suitable for development or construction, just to name a few. Al...

The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (CIDH) acknowledged the decision of the Constitutional Chamber of the Costa Rican Supreme Court which  declared unconstitutional the article of the Family Code that explicitly prohibits same sex marriage, and the Commission urges the State to advance immediately in the effective implementation of this sentence. The Supreme Court of Costa Rica ordere...

Costa Rica has always had a Justice system that can be linked to a maze of epic proportions where it was often easy to get lost or simply abandon the challenge of bringing a lawsuit to an end; many lawsuits take between five and ten years to be resolved. The reasons are multiple; a few are the lengthy and formalistic procedures, excess of appeals allowed, slow times to resolve by the Courts of App...

At 11:30 p.m. this August 8th, 2018, the Constitutional Chamber in Costa Rica (Sala Constitucional or Sala IV as it is popularly known) pronounced itself on same sex marriage in the country and domestic partnership between same sex couples. Judge Fernando Castillo was in charge of explaining the decision of the Constitutional Chamber to the press: “These have been two very complex rulings, a...

Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s legal career is over. Who the heck would hire this guy now to do any legal work for anybody anywhere for any reason? This self-inflicted high profile turn coat has hit the neon lights of passing obscurity. The late Pop artist Andy Warhol proclaimed everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame. Cohen’s got his time alright and it ain’t pretty. Because Cohen’s legal care...

Late last week a mushroom cloud exploded over Washington when long-time U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy went to the White House and submitted his resignation letter in person to President Donald Trump. Kennedy, 81, met privately with the president in the Oval Office to announce his impending retirement from the high court on July 31. President Trump said Friday he would be conduct...

A 54-year-old man became the first person in Costa Rica to receive the pension of his partner with who he lived many years and passed away in February 2016. The man, Roy Calderon, presented his request to receive the benefit to the National Direction of Pensions; however, the same was rejected back in December claiming that it did not fulfill the requirements as established in Article 8 of the ...

Costa Rica's most valuable asset is still its own land. A number of persons and corporations have found that land development, lot segregation and construction of buildings and houses are a way to make good profits. There is a wide range of investing options in this field: houses, apartments, lots, farms, raw land, commercial buildings and beach areas just to name a few. However, there are also a ...

For many years, the relations between consumer and merchants in Costa Rica were fundamentally by both the Code of Commerce and the Civil Code by applying generic commercial trade rules. It was that way until 1996 when Constitutional Status was granted to the protection of consumers' rights by introducing an amendment to article 46 of the Constitution, which basically says "All consumers have the r...

Environmentalist Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, through his lawyer Abraham Stern, filed a criminal complaint before the Public Ministry against 10 Costa Rican judges, accusing them or “prevaricato”, crime that consists on dictating resolutions contrary to the law. The case against Watson dates back to 2002 when members of the fishing vessel Varadero I from Punta...

The Costa Rican Supreme Electoral Court (TSE in Spanish) made it possible for citizens to change the name that appears in their identity card (cédula) to match their gender identity, following the advisory opinion given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. With this change all personal documents of the transgender population must also be modified according to show the name as it appears...

The changes in the regulation regarding the sale of ammunitions in Costa Rica went into effect today, with the publication of the same in the official newspaper La Gaceta. According to this regulation those businesses authorized to sell ammunition have the obligation of registering for all sales the name and identification number of the physical (of legal age) or legal corporation acquiring them....

Costa Rica has experienced an ample growth during the last two decades. Much of that growth is uncontrolled and can create confusion among land owners. The country has laws to protect property rights, some of which are unknown and usually go unused here. Easement laws protect property owners, so they can control what is built around them. Certain easements rights can be acquired over time, like th...

The Costa Rica Supreme Electoral Court (TSE in Spanish) announced this Monday that citizens will now be able to change their name according to their gender identity and it will be shown this way in their ID cards. The decision was made in session number 49-2018 in which the members of the TSE analyzed the advisory opinions given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding gay marriage...

Costa Rica’s Attorney General of the Republic (Procuraduría General) responded yesterday to the questions set out by the Constitutional Chamber (Sala IV) on whether or not the advisory opinions given by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights are binding regarding gay marriage. The Constitutional Chamber submitted the consultation to the Attorney General of the Republic regarding an unconstitu...

Costa Rica has certainly become a multi-cultural country. Many foreigners decide to come as tourists, investors or to become permanent residents. Those living in CR usually try to achieve a good relationship with neighbors, employees, friends and everyone in general. However, some of them have found that the worst thing they could have done was being too good to other people. This might sound stra...

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) today released the 2018 Special 301 Report, identifying trading partners that do not adequately or effectively protect and enforce intellectual property (IP) rights or otherwise deny market access to U.S. innovators and creators that rely on protection of their IP rights. The Report calls on U.S. trading partners to address IP-related cha...

Costa Rica is a small country. However, the number of rules and regulations are certainly overwhelming. There are some legal topics that would not make up an article exclusively but still have a lot of importance. Knowing about their existence can be helpful to Expats residing in the country permanently or temporarily, so here is a mix of legal advice to helping in Costa Rica. Hopefully, it will b...

The current traffic law in Costa Rica has been in effect since October 26th, 2012. The purpose of the regulation was to fix some big problems created by a former law approved in 2010, which contained outrageous fines and several evidentiary contradictions, which created a big mess affecting both administrative and court procedures. This does not mean the current law in effect is much better, so th...

In 2012 a law #9024 named "Tax on Corporations" came into effect. It was an annual tax on all corporations registered at National Registry based on the Code of Commerce such as SA's and LLC's plus all of those branches of foreign corporations that obtained a corporate ID number for their Costa Rican divisions. Most foreigners living in Costa Rica were caught with one or more corporations used to e...

Article 33 of the Migration Law in Costa Rica states that: “…Foreigners have the obligation to exit the country when their term as authorized by the migration authority expires, unless otherwise authorized through a request in the change of category or an extension granted by said migration authority” This same article establishes that if the foreign person does not leave the country in the ...

Powers of Attorney are a very important tool in Costa Rica and are used daily by individuals and corporations to take care of business, perform contracts and obtain various permits and authorizations from any public institution. However, Powers of Attorney can be also be a main cause of fraud. Some cases surrounding stealing by means of a Power of Attorney are hard to fight since judges tend to co...

45 deputies voted in favor of lifting the immunity privilege to criminal judge of the Supreme Court Celso Gamboa, investigated for influence peddling; lifting the immunity should allow for Gamboa to face the accusations; however, controversy and doubts raised as the vote in the Legislative Assembly was done publicly even though the regulations of the Assembly establish in article 101 that voting p...

During the last few days all news media have been reporting that a man named Manuel Alvarez, a person originally from Spain and long-term resident in California, has been reported as "missing" in Costa Rica by his family. Apparently, he came into the country after being alerted that some properties he owned here had been transferred illegally by forging his signature; this with help of some crooke...

Many expats in CR have some type of corporation registered in the country. There are numerous reasons why, but establishing a business, opening a bank account, or obtaining asset protection seem to be some of the most common ones. The main objective usually is to keep any personal liability separate from the corporation's patrimony and vice versa. It also allows the owner to include within the cor...

On most Real Estate transactions there are two initial items to be checked by any interested buyer: the existence of a Plot Map or "Plano Catastro" duly recorded at the National Cadastre Office as well as proceed getting a title certification from the Property Records Department or "Registro Inmobiliario". This information is of major importance as the plot map represents the physical description ...

The Superior Notarial Council in Costa Rica has agreed that for now all public notaries in the country are forbidden from celebrating same-sex marriages, despite the resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights until a legislative reform is made or a constitutional annulment sentence is emitted regarding the norms that regulate marriage in Costa Rica. The Council refers in particular ...

After the resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which established that same-sex couples should be recognized and guaranteed all the rights including the right to marriage, a same-sex couple will be celebrating their marriage for the first time in Costa Rica this Saturday, January 20, announced daily La Nacion. The couple is formed by Mario Arias ( Costa Rican) and Robeth Castil...

The Vice-President of Costa Rica Ana Helena Chacón Echeverría along with Marvin Carvajal, Legal Director for the Presidency and Eugenia Gutierrez, Legal Director for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had requested back in May 18, 2016 and advisory opinion to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding same-sex marriage and transgender rights; today he Government received the official ruling....

Several members of Congress in Costa Rica presented officially the “Ley de Cinematografia y Audiovisual” or Law of Cinematography and Audiovisual” a project that seeks to promote these activities in a systemic way through all its production and creative cycle. Some of the proposals included in the Law include changing the name of the Costa Rican Cinematography Production Center to Costa Rican C...

It is just the first day of 2018 but you know what they say “death and taxes”. The Costa Rica Treasury Department (Ministerio de Hacienda) reminds all owners of Costa Rican corporations that the tax payment for these, are due this month. The payment can be done starting today and the last day is January 31st. The amount each corporation pays will depend on how it is classified in the National ...

The Treasury Criminal Court ordered today a lien over the assets (properties, cars, bank accounts) of the seven people detained in relation to the “Cementazo” corruption scandal in Costa Rica. The Court admitted the request made by the Costa Rica Attorney General Office made last Friday as a precautionary measure after it had filed a civil action for compensatory damages on November 29th. A...

A Joke? Yes, a joke shared by Costa Rican Judge Hugo Porter two years ago on his Facebook page will be used by the attorneys of Juan Carlos Bolaños and Mario Barrenechea to challenge the resolution that ratified the preventive detention measure. Attorneys are arguing that the judge that dictated the resolution is prejudiced against bankers. Attorney Jose Miguel Villalobos, secondary lawyer to J...

Banks and credit unions in Costa Rica started receiving payments of the annual end-of-the-year vehicle registration fee, called the marchamo, on November 1. Vehicle owners have until December 31 to pay the 2018 marchamo fee to the National Insurance Institute. This year, banks have diversified their offers to attract customers to pay at their site. Some 1.4 million vehicles in Costa Rica wil...

A U.S. citizen by the last name of Krause, who is on the Interpol alert list for sexual abuse crimes in the United States, was turned back Monday, November 6, 2017 after arriving at the Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) outside of San José, Costa Rica. Costa Rican immigration police stationed at the airport saw that Krause's name came up on an Interpol alert list when they did a routi...

The U.S. Embassy in San José, Costa Rica is pleased to announce upcoming outreach sessions in the southern towns of Dominical and Pérez Zeledón. Consular staff will be on hand next week to render routine services and hear inquiries. A special information session in Pérez Zeledón will be held on visas for non-U.S. citizens. To RSVP for passport renewals, notary services, and federal...

A 41-year-old Costa Rican named Navarro Quesada pleaded guilty in the Pennsylvania Western District Court to the crimes of conducting mail fraud and money laundering. Navarro Quesada was arrested in February at the Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport in Madrid following an alert sent to the International Police (Interpol) by U.S. authorities. The Costa Rican man admitted to having used a website d...

This Saturday, November 5 the San José court sentenced Costa Rican businessman Juan Carlos Bolaños, president of SINOCEM and six executives of public bank Banco de Costa Rica who were all detained yesterday in relation to the “Cementazo” corruption case, to three months of preventive prision detention at the San Sebastián prison in San José which inmates describe as "hell on earth". The resolut...