Failure and reinstatement of a procedural deadline. Extension of court time limits

It should be borne in mind that any steps taken after the expiry of the time limit set by the court are ineffective. Pursuant to Article 168(1) of the Code of Civil Procedure “If a party has failed to perform a procedural act within the time limit through no fault of their own, the court shall, upon their application, order the restoration of the time limit.”, the remainder of the provision in question also states that: “Restoration is not permissible if the failure to meet the time limit does not entail adverse procedural consequences for the party.” (Article 168(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure). The absence of fault will be assessed here in terms of the party’s diligence in fulfilling the obligation, i.e. taking steps to ensure compliance with the time limit. An example of such a situation is the unexpected closure of post offices during the pandemic, as a result of which the document could not be posted.

When submitting an application to the Court for the restoration of a time limit, a procedural step must be taken together with the application. The legislator has provided for an additional 7-day period for this from the time the cause of the failure ceases. However, the mere submission of the application and the document does not guarantee that the court will grant it. The application must substantiate the circumstances justifying it. The court will reject an application that is late or inadmissible by law.

In a situation where a party knows that it will be unable to fulfil its obligation within the time limit, in order to avoid missing the deadline, it may attempt to submit an application for an extension of the time limit for responding to the Court’s summons. This provision is set out in Article 166 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It is important to bear in mind the distinction between court deadlines and statutory deadlines. Not all of them can be extended. Under the aforementioned provision, only court deadlines may be extended, i.e. those set by the presiding judge or by the court. A party will therefore not be able to extend, for example, the deadline for lodging an appeal, which is set by statute. For the Court to grant the application, it must be properly substantiated. Identifying and describing the existence of a valid reason, together with a factual explanation of the situation that has prevented the party from fulfilling their obligation within the prescribed time limit, will enable the presiding judge to make a decision regarding the application we have submitted.