Most deadlines in civil and criminal matters have been suspended since mid-March. Deadlines were suspended as part of the government’s response to COVID-19. This suspension will end on September 1st and deadlines will start counting again on that date.
Deadlines will start counting again
The deadlines suspended on March 15th will start counting again on September 1st. It will be as if September 1st will be the next day after March 15th. This means that the days in-between will not count.
For example, if you had 20 days left to pay a fine when deadlines were suspended, you will have 20 days left to pay starting on September 1st.
To learn more about deadlines, click here.
45 extra days for scheduled deadlines in case protocols
If you are involved in an active court case, some deadlines have been extended. For example, if your case had a protocol in place on March 15th, all scheduled deadlines have been automatically extended by 45 days. The case protocol is the calendar for the various stages of a civil or family trial. It sets the deadlines for things like exchanging documents, filing expert reports, and setting a trial date.
This means that the scheduled deadlines have been extended by a total of seven months since March 15th. The seven months includes the five and a half months since March 15th that were suspended plus the month and a half that has been automatically extended.