Order No. 25/2020: extension of the extraordinary judicial recess.
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Litigation Department Report | Order No. 25/2020: extension of the extraordinary judicial recess
Dear Sir or Madam,
Within the state of sanitary emergency declared regarding COVID-19 and the mandatory social, preventive isolation measure duly decreed, the Supreme Court has adopted different measures within the National Judicial Branch, consistent with the National Executive Branch provisions and the recommendations of the national sanitary authority. In line with Decree 576/20, through which the National Executive Branch enacted the extension of Decree 297/20 (later extended by Decrees 325/20, 355/20, 408/20, 459/20, 493/20, 520/20 and their complementary regulations), on 6/29/2020, the National Supreme Court of Justice (“Supreme Court”) issued the Order 25/2020. Through this Order, the Supreme Court provided the following measures: (i) to maintain the functioning of all federal courts with seat in the provinces, in respect of which it was already declared the ending of the extraordinary judicial recess as provided in Orders 17/20, 19/20, 20/20, 23/20 and 24/20, (ii) the extension of the extraordinary judicial recess issued by Order 6/2020, from June 29th through July 17th 2020, both dates included, for courts not included in the previous point, (iii) that during this extraordinary judicial recess the Supreme Court will work with all its members and court secretaries, (iv) to maintain the public opening hours of courts on duty from Monday to Friday from 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m., (v) to make known to all the courts included in point (ii) above, that they will have to authorize the issuance of final or interlocutory judgements in those cases that are in conditions to be resolved and the service of such decision by electronic notification, (vi) to establish that in those cases that are not covered by the provisions of the following paragraph, judges may, at the request of a party, enable the extraordinary judicial recess in said cases, provided that acts to be performed can be done in court files that are digitalized , (vii) to recall the exclusive powers of judges for attending procedural acts which do not admit a delay or those measures that if not carried out could cause an irreparable damage, as well as to deal with issues that arise from the guidelines and assumptions outlined by Orders 6/20, 9/20, 10/20, 13/20, 14/20, 16/20 and 18/20, (viii) that the authorities in charge of the superintendence of each jurisdiction over the courts outlined in the precedent paragraph, have to implement the guards or shifts that are indispensable according to the needs of the jurisdiction, and that said authorities will maintain the powers of superintendence delegated by this Court to extend the subjects to be dealt with during this extraordinary judicial recess, (ix) that, during this period, the different courts and other dependencies must provide the service as a matter of priority remotely, with a minimum number of personnel required for this purpose, (x) to order that all judicial personnel who attend courts and its dependencies to provide services will adopt preventive, hygienic, mobility and transport measures issued by competent authorities in this respect, (xi) to maintain the limitation on public attention, with the exception of those judicial proceedings in which the presence of the counsels and parties is necessary, and to recall and urge that available digital tools have to be used to submit writs and submissions, and (xii) to reiterate the provisions issued by the Supreme Court in Orders 14/20 and 18/20 to the effect that the various federal courts and federal oral courts sitting in the provinces which have not yet informed the situation in their respective jurisdictions have to evaluate and request the enablement of the extraordinary judicial recess of their own court and those under their superintendency.
Please, do not hesitate to contact us should you require any further information on this matter.
Sincerely,
Eduardo J. Güemes
Martín Gastaldi
Gonzalo García Delatour
Federico Sosa