An important but little-used legal resource

By: Garland M. Baker B.

Exclusive to A.M. Costa Rica

Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated. We are currently preparing a comprehensive update. Sign up for our Alerts to be notified as soon as the revised content is live!

Going to get into a legal fight in Costa Rica?  Here is a great resource and it is free.

Most people do not know about the incredible Website of La Procuraduría General de la República, the attorney general’s office of Costa Rica. This authority is the superior juridical organ and public administration technician for the country.  The attorneys of the Procuraduría represent the country in the legal matters when affairs of the state are at stake.

The Procuraduría Website hosts el Sistema Costarricense de Información Jurídica, Costa Rica’s judicial information source.   It is part of the program of modernization of the administration of justice, funded by a loan from the Interamerican Development Bank.

The system includes legislation from as far back as 1821 with laws, executive decrees, international conventions, and treaties, along with regulations, rules, and by-laws to apply the law.  Higher court decisions from appellate, cassation, and constitutional courts that form Costa Rica’s jurisprudence are all available online.

Fast Internet is great except for ICE shuffle

By: Garland M. Baker B.

Exclusive to A.M. Costa Rica

Editor's Note: While this article was accurate at the time of publication, some information may now be outdated. We are currently preparing a comprehensive update. Sign up for our Alerts to be notified as soon as the revised content is live!

Everyone knows what a test pilot is. How about a technology tester?  In this day and age, it is almost the same thing.  Pilot program is the term used today.

In Information Technologies, development stage engineering is broken down into three parts:  The alpha stage, the beginning of a technology when it is in a very rough form.  The beta stage, an active debugging or problem-solving phase when a technology is heavily tested, preparing it for market introduction.  The stable stage, when a technology is ready.

About five years ago, GrupoICE was looking for testers for advanced Internet also referred to as ADSL, short for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line.  A technology that allows more data transmission over existing copper telephone lines than is normally possible.  ADSL supports data rates from 1.5 to 9 Mbps when receiving data (known as the downstream rate) and from 16 to 640 Kbps when sending data (known as the upstream rate).

GrupoICE is the country’s monopoly over communications and electricity.  It is made up of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Radiográfica Costarricense S.A (RACSA) and Compañía Nacional de Fuerza y Luz (CNFL).

At the time, deciding to sign up along with 600 other techno junkies was easy.  However, years have passed and being a tester for ICE has been no piece of cake.  Costa Rica is famous for implementing something new and then over saturating the use of it until it blows up and does not work anymore.