A lawsuit in the Dominican Republic is a long and expensive process. Most lawsuits run for years and court decisions are in general not in the favor of the foreign investor. The Dominican court system is highly corrupted and verdicts often manipulated or delayed by one of the parties.

Dominican Watchdog strongly recommends that you do not start a lawsuit unless it’s the last and final option. Lawyers in the Dominican Republic are substantially overcharging foreigners with as much as 500-800% and they do not have a malpractice insurance. Paying expensive lawyer fees do not guarantee anything and choosing big law firms for small cases is not a good option as your case is pushed to a junior lawyer with little experience.

Furthermore it’s not unusual that lawyers from both sides are “operating under an unwritten mutual agreement” of complicating court cases especially among foreigners. The reason for that is that the longer the case will run, the more they will be able to charge their clients.

Even if you win a court case in the Dominican Republic it will be almost impossible and highly unlikely that you will ever be able to collect on the verdict. Debt collection in the Dominican Republic from any company or private individual will in many cases only result in more lawyer bills!

The majority of court cases involving foreigners are related to real estate fraud in the Dominican Republic.

Real estate fraud can be avoided by spending time and money on good legal work and especially deep title investigations before buying or signing any contract.

Dominican Watchdog is monitoring a network of Dominican lawyers who speak English, German and French. We recommend that you use these trusted lawyers to avoid problems and losing your money.

In our Property Guide you will find 10 simple rules about buying real estate in the Dominican Republic. And why you must never to pay any money directly to estate agents, sellers or building companies.

When investing in the Dominican Republic make sure that you have signed legal binding contracts – do not believe in promises and do not expect to find the same moral standard and quality of work that you will find in a developed country.

Only a Notarized contract in Spanish is legal in the Dominican Republic. However it’s a good idea to spend money on a translation into your own language.

If you are planning to move to the Dominican Republic and need Dominican residence or you simply want to employ a maid. We recommend that you use the same law firms as it’s important to understand the strong labor laws in the DR. Maids are entitled to a rather big settlement if fired after 6 months and that the amount increases up to several years of salary. Foreigners will lose any court case against employees!

Contact us for a list of trusted Dominican lawyers

If your legal battle in the Dominican Republic is ONLY related to real estate agents or larger developments, then Dominican Watchdog has introduced the first - NO CURE - NO PAY - service to local or foreign investors to recover their lost money.

If we don't reach a settlement with the developer or estate agent in less than 100 days, then you pay absolutely nothing!

This offer is limited to real estate and timeshares purchases. The Dominican Watchdog is not a law firm, we don't give legal advice. This service is a completely independent "swift out of court private settlement" in order to prevent you from losing more money on year long court battles.

We must have access to all your signed contracts and proof of payment to the real estate agent or developer. Without legal documents confirming your investment or lose we can't help you. You will have to sign a NO CURE - NO PAY agreement valid for 100 days. 

The Dominican Watchdog is the only international consumer protection website fully focused on the Dominican Republic. We have the power to reach swift out of court settlements, because we have the power to block international sales and marketing immediately by exposing fraud or irregularities regarding the Dominican real estate market.