4.  The applicant was born in 1947 and lives in Ostrava. 5.  On 6 October 1993 the applicant brought an action for damages (žaloba na náhradu škody), following a theft in premises belonging to a defendant[1], before the Ostrava District Court (okresní soud). 6.  On 27 September 1994 the District Court held a hearing. Another hearing was to be held on 14 March 1995 but was cancelled because of the judge's long-term illness. In September 1995 the case was then given to another judge who fixed a hearing for 11 June 1996. However, the hearing was cancelled due to the absence of the judge. The next hearing was held on 20 August 1996, but was adjourned, as two witnesses did not appear. 7. On 5 November 1996 the District Court held a hearing and ordered an expert opinion. The first expert appointed by the court on 11 April 1997 requested, on 6 May 1997, to be relieved of his commission. On 10 August 1997 the District Court appointed a new expert who received the case file on 9 October 1997. On 11 December 1997 he requested the judge to obtain technical documents about the applicant's damaged car. On the same day the judge forwarded this request to the Road Traffic Licensing Department of the Police of the Czech Republic (Dopravní inspektorát policie České republiky). The expert also contacted the applicant about the matter but he had sold the car in July 1993. 8.  On 23 July 1998, the Road Traffic Licensing Department, after having been urged by the judge, informed the latter that it did not have the relevant technical documents. On 15 December 1998 the expert obtained the necessary data from the archives of the Road Traffic Licensing Department. On 9 February 1999 he drew up his report. On 4 and 22 March 1999 respectively, the parties submitted their comments. 9. In the meantime, on 20 February 1999, the applicant had sent a complaint about delays in the proceedings to the president of the District Court who, on 5 March 1999, had informed him that his case was being “dealt with by the chamber within the time-limits corresponding to the volume of this chamber's backlog of cases”. 10. On 12 March 1999 the applicant complained of the delays in the proceedings to the Ostrava Regional Court (krajský soud). On 23 March 1999 the president of that court replied that the applicant's complaint was well founded. On 4 April 1999 the applicant sent a similar complaint to the Ministry of Justice through the president of the Regional Court. On 16 April 1999 the Ministry informed the applicant that they had received his complaint and were examining the situation. 11. Two hearings were held on 18 June and 17 August 1999. On the latter date, the District Court adopted a judgment, against which the applicant appealed on 23 November 1999. On 3 January 2000 the defendant[2] was invited to rectify certain shortcomings in his appeal, which he did on 28 January 2000. 12.  On 26 May 2000 the Regional Court quashed the judgment of the District Court and sent the case back to it for further consideration. 13. The hearing scheduled for 24 October 2000 was adjourned until 28 November 2000 in order to hear the expert. On the same day, the District Court adopted an interim judgment approving the well-foundedness of the legal basis of the applicant's action for damages, the amount of which had to be quantified later. 14. On 18 June 2001 the Regional Court, upon the defendant's appeal of 20 December 2000, quashed the interim judgment and returned the case to the District Court. 15.  On 21 September 2001 the District Court forwarded the defendant's challenge to the judge dealing with his case, on grounds of bias, to the Regional Court. On 16 October 2001 the latter dismissed the objection. 16. The hearing held before the District Court on 5 March 2002 was adjourned for a second expert report. On 13 May 2002 the court appointed an expert. 17.  The proceedings are still pending.