The executioners

It's always the little people who pay through the nose, whether it's taxes, loans or the courts. The Czech media have been flooded with stories about abuse of the debt-collection and small-claims arbitration processes by those who are supposed to enforce the fairness of the system. Most of the attention has been aimed at court bailiffs, known also as distrainers or, perhaps more appropriately, executioners. In many cases, the punishment they mete out far exceeds the crime. LN reported how the head of the bailiffs' association walked away with a Prague villa at half the market value. Czech TV said that Profireal consumer lender uses a single arbiter to rubber-stamp 800 seizures per month. The media attention has led Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil to come running with an amendment for halting the abuses. In the meantime, it will be the task of the upstanding private companies hiring these hangmen to put an end to the unjust executions. [Czech Republic Television ČT1 Juraj Podkonický bad]