Judicial series
Judicial series
"I had to defend myself in legal proceedings and I received a judgement from the Tribunal while I was on holiday for the festive season. The ruling gave me 30 days to appeal. I've heard that there are public holidays during the festive season, so what exactly does that mean for the appeal period?
Anonymous, Meyrin
In legal proceedings, it is very important to observe deadlines of all kinds, as failure to do so may result in the loss of the rights claimed. Given that the parties must still be able to benefit from the usual holiday periods, there are periods in civil and administrative proceedings during which time limits do not run. In criminal proceedings, on the other hand, there are no judicial holidays.
In principle, there are three periods when time limits are suspended: Easter, the summer holidays and the end-of-year festivities. Article 145 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) and article 63 of the Administrative Procedure Act (LPA) stipulate that statutory time limits and time limits set by the courts do not run from the seventh day before Easter to and including the seventh day after Easter, from 15 July to and including 15 August, and from 18 December to and including 2 January.
Where a time limit has begun to run before this period, it is suspended and starts to run again after the end of this suspension. For example, if a decision or judgment was notified on Monday 14 December 2015, the 30-day period would start to run from 15 to 17 December (3 days), be suspended from 18 December to 2 January inclusive, and then resume running on 3 January for the remaining number of days (27), i.e. until 29 January 2016.
On the other hand, where a document is served during a period of suspension, the time limit does not start to run until the day following the end of the suspension. For example, if you were notified of the judgment on 18 December 2015, the 30-day period will not begin to run until 3 January and will therefore expire on 1 February 2016.
There are two exceptions to these rules: there is no suspension of time limits in conciliation proceedings and in summary proceedings, i.e. in particular for provisional measures. Finally, it should be noted that during the period of suspension of time limits, the courts do not hold hearings unless the parties consent.
