4.  In January 1999 the applicant brought an action with the Korabelnyy District Court of Mykolayiv against several companies (the successors of her former employer) seeking compensation for damage to her health inflicted at work. 5.  On 11 April 2005 the court dismissed the applicant’s action against the respondents and ordered the Social Insurance Fund to make certain monthly insurance payments to the applicant with their further recalculation. 6.  On 20 October 2005 the Mykolayiv Regional Court of Appeal partly changed the above judgment by increasing the amounts of monthly payments and ordering the Social Insurance Fund to pay the applicant certain amounts in arrears. 7.  On 4 January 2006 the applicant appealed in cassation to the Supreme Court. After she had rectified her appeal on 27 February 2006 and the District Court had sent the case file to the Supreme Court on 21 April 2006, the latter took the case for examination. On 4 October 2007 the Supreme Court forwarded the appeal in cassation to the Kherson Regional Court of Appeal, which on 26 November 2007, acting as a court of cassation, rejected it as unsubstantiated. 8.  In the course of the proceedings, the applicant modified her claim on four occasions, lodged about ten procedural requests and lodged several appeals which were not in accordance with procedural requirements or requested the courts to extend the time-limits for lodging them. Of fifty-seven hearings, one hearing was adjourned due to the applicant’s failure to attend it, two hearings following her requests that they be adjourned, and one due to both parties’ failure to attend it. The above delays on the applicant’s part protracted the proceedings to approximately seven months. Furthermore, ten hearings were adjourned due to the sickness or absence of a judge and twenty-six due to the respondents’ or experts’ failure to attend them or the respondents’ requests to adjourn them, or for other reasons (public holidays, end of working day, and so on). The case was twice remitted for fresh consideration and four expert examinations were ordered by the domestic courts.