Legal protection: Procedures to enforce contracts

Legal protection is important to all business operations, but simplicity and speed can be even more desirable offshore outsourcing operations that cross national borders. Enforcing contracts and the complexity of the associated processes is correlated with a countries global economic competitiveness and can vary significantly across countries. Summarized below is the number of steps required to file a claim, obtain a judgment and enforce it.

The Czech Republic is a leader with only 27 steps required to enforce a contract. A number of other countries including the United States, Malaysia, Hungary and China have less than 35 processes. Brazil, India and Pakistan have the most steps.

Data is sourced from the World Bank Doing Business survey. The overall Ease of Doing Business survey covers 10 dimensions which include starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business.