About ONRIGHTS
When a final judgment is not enough.
Who we are, what we do and what we do not do.
What we do
ONRIGHTS is a European legal practice that takes companies’ claims against public bodies to the European Court of Human Rights when domestic enforcement has failed.
Corporate creditors holding a final judgment the State will not honour. A different forum, with a different respondent.
46
States under the Court’s jurisdiction, in the Council of Europe.
4 months
to apply to the Court from the final domestic decision, since Protocol No. 15.
Read the analysis1997
Hornsby v. Greece: enforcement of a judgment is part of the right to a fair hearing.
Read the analysis1999
Immobiliare Saffi v. Italy: prolonged non-enforcement also breaches the right to property.
Read the analysis
The services
Four steps, from non-payment to recovery
From turning an unpaid invoice into an enforceable title to getting the awarded money to the creditor.
Two further services are not stages: End-to-end management, which carries all four steps end to end, and Portfolios and assigned claims, for public-sector credit already acquired.
Claim assessment
We assess your claim and tell you whether it is actionable, through which route, and what documentation is missing.
Public debt claim
We pursue the unpaid debt before the debtor body until it is recognised in an enforceable title in your name.
Claim before the ECHR
We take your unenforced ruling to Strasbourg, where the State answers for what its bodies do not pay.
Enforcement against the State
We turn the European ruling into payment: an enforceable title against the State, and attachment if it comes to that.
What sets us apart
Why this route and not another pass through the same court
Does your case fit?
The preliminary assessment answers that before there is any engagement.
Request an assessmentA different route, not another pass through the same court
Once domestic enforcement is exhausted, repeating it does not change the outcome. An application to the ECHR rests on Article 6 § 1 of the Convention — the right to a fair hearing includes enforcement of the judgment — and on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1. It is a different forum, with a different respondent: the State.
The debtor has to be a public body
The Court is not a debt-collection forum. The State answers for failing to comply with a ruling of its own courts, or for not providing the means of enforcement. That limit is what makes the case viable, and it is checked before anything else.
Screening comes before the engagement
The assessment exists so that we can say no. A matter that does not meet the Court’s requirements is not improved by filing it.
The case does not end with the judgment
Winning a favourable ruling and getting paid are two different things. The service covers follow-through on enforcement.
Four markets, one point of contact
The service operates in Spanish, English, Portuguese and Italian, using the terminology of each jurisdiction.
Who we act for
Creditors of European public bodies
Companies and professionals holding a final judgment that still goes unenforced.
Suppliers
Contracts and invoices left unpaid by a public authority.
Service companies
Waste, transport, maintenance, utilities.
Banks and lenders
Loans and guarantees to bodies that stopped paying them back.
Funds and SPVs
Acquired public-sector portfolios that were never enforced.
Public-sector employees
Back pay, severance and supplements already awarded.
Ready to Move Forward?
New ECHR rulings are holding States to account. Yours could be next.
Request a free evaluation