Customer Reviews

The Legal Guide to Costa Rica

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you are moving to beautiful Costa Rica you must have this guide. It details in plane English the legal system in Costa Rica. It answers questions on citizenship, visa's, work permit, labor laws, and has sample forms of Costa Rican legal forms. If your planning on moving to Costa Rica and starting a business in Costa Rica you must own this guide, period. Great help on avoiding getting burned! The best part is the author is a Costa Rican born US Citizen educated in the U.S. including law school and lives in Costa Rica. He knows his stuff!

The very best source for a lay person to become aware of Costa Rican law and its application. Everyone who reads english and resides full or part time in Costa Rica needs this reference. In a country where an attorney must be hired by anyone purchasing a car,a non common law country where stare decisis and precedent do not apply, where it takes seven years to get a case to trial, You must be aware of the "LEY." Easy enough to read that legal students will probably be using it as a study reference. If you have any interest in the wonderful country of Costa Rica, you need to have this reference in your library! (anonymous)

This book has been invaluable in understanding Costa Rica's laws and pointing out issues of concern. My family rented a home in Costa Rica and the lease was exactly as written in this book. We are looking at purchasing property and now know how to research online and what to look out for. I wouldn't be half as comfortable in Costa Rica without this book. A must-have for anyone serious about living, working or doing business in Costa Rica.

This book is a "must read" for individuals desiring to reside, work, marry (or divorce), invest, study, purchase property or own a business in Costa Rica. The author successfully compiled a broad compendium of laws,legal processes and governance in this country.

"The Legal Guide to Costa Rica" reads like a typical Intro to Business Law textbook and contains some dry passages. However, this should not give the serious Costa Rica aficionado or investor reason to put the book down. A lot of important legal ground is covered in just 348 pages. Even though the book may not have all the answers, it remains a handy "legal road map" and does a more than adequate job of preparing the reader to ask the right questions once in Costa Rica.

A minor editing inconsistency was detected in the 4th edition update. On p. 176, the author writes that after 2003, the pensionado-rentista residency program (formerly administered by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute) is now the responsibility of the Department of Immigration. In subsequent passages describing the current application process (on p. 178), the author continues to make reference to "Tourism Department" instead of "Immigration Department."

If living, investing or working in Costa Rica is in your future, I highly recommend "The Legal Guide to Costa Rica."

Fortunately for the author there is the only one book on the subject, his. I wish there was a legal guide that would make it easy for someone who is only used to the system in the U.S. and Canada. I really had a hard time with this book. It should be written more for the layman and in simpler language. On top of that, it is really boring and dry. I think the author could have made it more interesting by injecting some humor and anecdotes. Perhaps a question and answer format would be better. Hopefully someone will come along and do a better guide for us Gringos. Until then we will have to put up with this boring one-of-a-kind book.

$187.oo for this book with only one review? Does that in any way tell you something? Do you hear bells and whistles going off? $187.00 for this book is a very bad joke on the average Joe and Sally Blow out there in Never Never land. The book was and is obviously over priced by at least $160.00 when it was new and now it is completely out of date today. The man who wrote this is apparently suffering from grandios illusions of himself if he really thinks this old out of date book is worth anything over $20.00 today. It is probably not worth any thing over $15.00 today. Oh, by the way I am a competent attorney, one of the very best in America. I speak fluent Spanish and have read and examined this book carefully from begining to end. It's out of date and of very little value today and certainly not $187.00. Are you kidding me?
For this kind of money you can hire an attorney in Costa Rica to give you complete first hand up to date information today. Forget this old out of date book and find a good attorney in Costa Rica you can trust. Don't waste your money on this over priced old book.