4.  The applicants were born in 1961 and 1956 respectively and live in Warsaw. 5.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows. 6.  On 2 June 1997 the applicants, business partners, lodged before the Łódź Regional Court a civil action against a third party for protection against copyright infringement (o ochronę praw autorskich). They also applied that their claims would be secured from the respondent’s property. On 15 September 2000 the motion to secure the claims was dismissed. 7.  The first hearing was held on 24 February 1998. The subsequent hearings were held on the following dates: 10 September 1999, 1 September 2000, 14 September 2001, 14 November 2003, 6 January 2004, 24 February 2004, 5 October 2004, 3 March 2006, 24 March 2006 and 10 November 2006. On 23 February 2007 the applicants increased the value of their claims (rozszerzenie powództwa). A subsequent hearing was held on 22 May 2007. 8.  On 30 May 2007 the Łódź Regional Court awarded the applicants 1,000 Polish Zlotys (PLN), ordered the respondent to publish a certain statement in a daily newspaper and dismissed the remaining claims. Both parties appealed. 9.  On 13 December 2007 the Łódź Court of Appeal quashed and remitted the first-instance judgment in part and dismissed a remainder. 10.  On re-examination of the case the first hearing before the Łódź Regional Court was held on 29 October 2008. The applicants’ council requested then to allow evidence from an expert opinion. By the decision of 13 January 2009 the Łódź Regional Court granted the request. 11.  On 20 October 2009 the applicants filed a request for their claims to be secured. By the decision of 18 November 2009 the Łódź Regional Court dismissed their motion. The applicants’ interlocutory appeal was dismissed on 15 January 2010 by the Łódź Court of Appeal. 12.  The Łódź Regional Court held its further hearings on 20 January, 21 April and 30 July 2010. Subsequently four more hearings were held on unspecified dates. 13.  On 12 December 2011 the applicants filed another motion to secure their claims from the respondent’s real property or his other property rights. On 7 February 2012 the Łódź Regional Court dismissed the motion. 14.  On 11 March 2013 the Łódź Regional Court found in part for the applicants and dismissed the remainder. 15.  The proceedings appear to be pending before the second-instance court. 16.  On 1 October 2004 each of the applicants lodged their complaint with the Łódź Court of Appeal under section 5 of the Law of 17 June 2004 on complaints about a breach of the right to a trial within a reasonable time (Ustawa o skardze na naruszenie prawa strony do rozpoznania sprawy w postępowaniu sądowym bez nieuzasadnionej zwłoki) (“the 2004 Act”). 17.  On 24 November 2004 the Łódź Court of Appeal acknowledged that the examination of the applicants’ motion to secure claims had been lengthy (period from 2 June 1997 to 15 September 2000). The domestic court held, however, that the Law of 2004 could not apply retroactively. The remaining part of the complaint was found to be unjustified. 18.  On 11 August 2009 the applicants lodged with the Łódź Court of Appeal another complaint under section 5 of the 2004 Act. 19.  On 24 September 2009 the Łódź Court of Appeal acknowledged that between 1997 and 2005 the proceedings were not conducted in a timely manner. The Court of Appeal further held that since 2006 the proceedings had been conducted timely, although, taking under consideration the overall length of the proceedings, the domestic court should have asked an expert to speed up his work on a rapport. 20.  The Łódź Court of Appeal awarded each of the applicants PLN 3,000 (approx. 700 euros (EUR)).