Law practice

Chitic v. Romania — a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

Application no. 6512/13, decided by the judgment of the Fourth Section of 14 January 2020. The case began with something small, and for that very reason telling: an administrative penalty notice issued under Law 61/1991 for taking part in a public demonstration, challenged without success before the Romanian courts (file 2773/299/2012). The Strasbourg Court examined the complaint under Article 10 of the Convention — freedom of expression. I conducted the case alone, from the penalty notice all the way to Strasbourg, for eight years. The judgment may be downloaded below and consulted in the Court’s HUDOC database.

Read the judgment in the Court’s HUDOC database ↗⤓ Download the judgment (PDF)

The “Microsoft” files — defending Gabriel Sandu

One of the most heavily reported corruption cases of the past decade, with several branches investigated in succession: “Microsoft 1” (187/P/2013), “Microsoft 3” (766/P/2016, file 2607/1/2017) and the money-laundering file (588/P/2019, file 3156/1/2019). I lodged a complaint against the decision to discontinue of 8 March 2018 (43/II-2/2018, file 917/1/2018) and raised the plea of unconstitutionality of Article 13 of Emergency Ordinance 43/2002 and Article 87(2) of Law 304/2004 — the provisions on which the whole architecture of the anti-corruption directorate rested. I wrote publicly, at the time, about what I then called “Microsoftgate”: the way a criminal file can be kept alive or allowed to die according to calculations other than judicial ones.

The bankruptcy of Captain Port Service Product and the litigation with BRD

File 54987/3/2010 and its associated files — insolvency proceedings in which I challenged, on behalf of the debtor company, the creditor bank’s decision to appoint the liquidator, through appeals, pleadings and written submissions carried on for years. These are the files in which one sees most clearly how a large bank can decide, practically on its own, the fate of a company — and why challenging such a decision is not a procedural whim but the only defence left.

The application for revision in the Elena Udrea case

File 134/1/2024 before the High Court of Cassation and Justice — an application for revision in one of the most widely reported criminal cases of the past decade. I acted as Elena Udrea’s counsel in these proceedings. Revision is the least popular and the hardest of remedies: you ask the court to acknowledge that a final judgment was wrong. That is precisely why it exists — and precisely why it must be used when new elements come to light.

The application for revision in the “Telepatia” case

One of the criminal cases that casts the longest shadow over Romanian justice. I lodged an application for revision, and in February 2024 the court ruled on its admissibility in principle. I wrote at the time that what was happening in that file was “strange” — and I continue to believe that a judgment which cannot withstand a retrial is not a judgment but a verdict.

My own proceedings against state institutions

I have acted in my own name, as a mere citizen-lawyer: the application to annul the decree appointing the Prime Minister, the complaints against the judges of the Constitutional Court after the annulment of the December 2024 election, the complaint for usurpation of official capacity, the case against the traffic police. I lost many of them. I brought them all the same, because a right not claimed is a right extinguished.

Defending those fined and questioned during the pandemic years

I challenged fines imposed for breaching military ordinances, assisted people summoned for questioning because they had protested, and lodged complaints against measures restricting rights. Many of these cases ended with the penalties annulled, following the decisions of the Constitutional Court.

Commercial matters, insolvencies and restitution of property

The greater part of the practice, without public visibility but with the most concrete stakes: disputes between companies, enforcement proceedings, bankruptcies, international contracts, files under Law 10/2001 and before the restitution authority, claims for recovery of possession and expropriations — cases that sometimes last longer than a career.