with similar cases lodged by other plaintiffs and the necessity to rule on the attachment of the defendant's property. The applicant herself had contributed to the length of the proceedings by failing to appear before the court, amending her claims, and challenging the judge. In addition, she had never protested about the adjournments caused by the defendant's absence. As regards the conduct of the domestic authorities, the Government submitted that the length of the proceedings was justified by the involvement of several instances in the examination of the case. Otherwise, hearings had been scheduled at regular intervals and the parties' requests examined promptly. The delays caused by adjournments of hearings on the initiative of the court had been negligible. Having regard to the foregoing, the Government concluded that the requirement of reasonableness of the length of the proceedings enshrined in Article 6 § 1 of the Convention had been complied with by the domestic authorities.
51. The applicant submitted that the case was not particularly complex. The domestic authorities themselves had complicated the proceedings by joining the applicant's case to numerous other cases against the same defendant. The applicant had made attempts to have her case separated from the other cases as early as February 2000; however, the domestic court had agreed to do so only after her repeated request to that effect lodged in November 2002. The case had not required any intricate procedural actions or the appointment of experts. The domestic court's task had been limited to the application of the domestic law. The domestic courts had constantly breached the provisions of the domestic law by calling for the re-examination of the case on so many occasions. The applicant had never failed to appear, save for the occasions when she had not been duly apprised of the hearings. The amendment of the applicant's claims over the period when the proceedings were pending had been made necessary by inflation.
2. The Court's assessment
52. The Court reiterates that the reasonableness of the length of proceedings must be assessed in the light of the circumstances of the case and with reference to the following criteria: the complexity of the case, the conduct of the applicant and the relevant authorities and what was at stake for the applicant in the dispute (see, among many other authorities, Frydlender v. France [GC], No. 30979/96, § 43, ECHR 2000-VII).
53. The Court considers that the case was not particularly complex, despite the involvement of several parties and their claims; there was no complex background to the case; all the claims were homogeneous and straightforward; the domestic court's task consisted of applying the provisions of the domestic law. Moreover, on all three occasions the first-instance court decided on the case at a single hearing.
54. As to the applicant's conduct, the Court notes the Government's argument that the applicant contributed to the delay in the proceedings by failing to attend, amending her claims, challenging the judge, and not raising objections to the adjournments of the hearings due to the defendant's absence.
55. The Court observes that the applicant was absent from the hearing of 5 October 1999. The resulting delay amounted to one month and ten days, which is negligible in view of the overall length of the proceedings. The Court further notes that the applicant did not attend the hearings scheduled for 23 July and 20 August 2004, and 18 July 2006. However, as can be seen from the material in the case file, the applicant's attendance on the above dates was made impossible by the domestic court's failure to notify her.
56. The adjustment by the applicant of her pecuniary claims cannot, in the Court's view, be considered vexatious or an abuse of process, r
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