Federal Council wants to standardize the calculation of time limits
Published: Wednesday, Feb 14th 2024, 11:30
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The calculation of deadlines in the Swiss legal system is to be standardized. If an A Mail Plus letter announcing a deadline lands in the letterbox on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the deadline should only run from the following working day. The deadline now runs from the day after delivery.
On Wednesday, the Federal Council opened a consultation period until May 24, 2024. Various enactments must be amended for the standardization, including the Administrative Procedure Act, the Federal Supreme Court Act, the Military Criminal Code, the Direct Federal Tax Act and the Federal Act on the General Part of Social Security Law.
Specifically, this relates to letters delivered using the "A Mail Plus" delivery method that trigger a deadline, such as notices of termination, official orders or court decisions. With A Mail Plus, consignments can also be tracked and delivered on Saturdays. However, the recipient does not have to confirm receipt.
If the recipient is absent at the weekend and does not pick up the letter until Monday, the deadline has already expired, as the Federal Council explains. It is not known when the deadline has actually begun and will end, and the response time will be shorter.
Requested by Parliament
The Federal Council is now proposing that the time limit for mail delivered on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays should only run from the following working day. For decrees that contain deadlines without calculation rules, a catch-all provision is to be created in the existing federal law on the running of deadlines on Saturdays.
Parliament called for the standardization of time limits with a motion from the National Council's Legal Affairs Committee. According to the committee, this solution would make procedural law as simple and comprehensible as possible for citizens. This would prevent those affected from losing their rights due to purely procedural issues.
Civil procedural law is excluded from the bill because it already contains such a time limit fiction. The Code of Criminal Procedure is also not affected. It explicitly prescribes service against acknowledgement of receipt.
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