4.  The applicant was born in 1970. He is serving a life term in the Leopoldov prison. 5.  On 22 March 2004 the applicant claimed compensation before the Bratislava I District Court for damages allegedly caused by legal malpractice of his former lawyer. 6.  On 31 August 2004 the District Court exempted the applicant from the obligation to pay the court fees. 7.  Subsequently, between 22 October 2004 and 4 August 2008, the District Court appointed one-by-one four legal-aid lawyers for the applicant who appealed against the appointment or refused to take up the legal representation submitting that they were in a friendly relationship with the defendant or that their illness or business prevented them from providing legal aid to the applicant. 8.  The Bratislava Regional Court, on the appeal of the appointed lawyers, twice quashed the District Court’s decisions to appoint a legal-aid lawyer and remitted the matter for a new determination and in one instance it dismissed the attorney’s appeal. 9.  On 24 September 2008 the Constitutional Court dismissed the applicant’s complaint about alleged delays before the District Court. It held that the District Court had been proceeding in a continuous manner and that short periods of inactivity of the court had not violated the applicant’s right invoked. It further held that the lawyers’ refusals to take up the legal representation were supported by reasonable grounds and therefore the delays caused by this fact could not be attributable to the District Court. 10.  By a decision of 12 January 2009 the District Court appointed a fifth legal-aid lawyer and in March 2009 it requested the applicant to eliminate shortcomings in his action within ten days. 11.  The applicant’s legal-aid lawyer asked for extension of the given time-limit or alternatively the appointment of another legal-aid lawyer on account of her temporary illness presumably to last until the end of April 2009. 12.  On 10 November 2009 the District Court repeatedly requested the lawyer to complete the petition. 13.  On 15 March 2010 the lawyer requested that her appointment be quashed. The District Court dismissed her request and on 2 September 2010 again requested her to amend the petition. 14.  The proceedings are still pending.