When justice is suspended
When justice is suspended
"I've heard that during the festive season, the courts stop functioning, so you can't get a court ruling. Is this true? " Vincent, Thônex
The "féries judiciaires" are in fact a period of the year during which judicial deadlines are suspended and hearings are not generally convened. This means that the time limits set by the courts and most of those set by law do not run during this period.
However, the courts do not close over the festive period; they operate a duty system to deal only with urgent cases. So the justice system is always alert!
A court decision generally has a time limit for appealing against it, normally 10 to 30 days from notification. The law sets this time limit.
Court holidays are also defined by law. In civil procedure, article 145 of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) sets out the dates during which statutory time limits and time limits set by the courts do not run. For the Christmas and New Year period, this means from 18 December to 2 January inclusive. Please note that some decisions are not subject to time limits, particularly in summary proceedings or prosecutions.
Cantonal administrative proceedings are subject to the same time limits under article 63 of the Administrative Procedure Act (LPA). On the other hand, there are no time limits for criminal proceedings, as the legal time limits are never suspended.
To illustrate the point, let's imagine that a Civil Court decision subject to a 30-day appeal period is handed down on 12 December 2019. The last day for lodging an appeal with the Court of Justice would be 27 January 2020. If the same decision had been handed down on 12 November 2019, i.e. outside the public holidays, the appeal would have had to be lodged by 12 December 2019 at the latest.
So, to answer your question, you may well receive a decision over the festive period but, depending on the nature of the decision, the deadline for lodging an appeal will probably not be counted until 3 January.
In the end, these holidays allow all parties involved in proceedings - judges, lawyers and litigants - to benefit from a period of calm. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Julie readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
