The Official Gazette of last Monday, March 17, brought us a significant change to Ordinance No. 280/2013, of August 26, through Ordinance No. 86/2023, of March 27.

The aforementioned Administrative Rule regulates the rules regarding the distribution, by electronic means, of cases in the judicial courts and in the administrative and tax courts. We highlight, essentially, the changes made to articles 16, 17 and 18.

With regard to article 16, and since electronic distribution was previously made twice a day, it is now decided that it will be made once a day, on business days, at a fixed time to be defined by the president of the court, without prejudice to extraordinary distributions when the urgency of the case justifies it, pursuant to paragraph 7. The ordinary distribution time is then published in the digital services area of the courts, via the court's email address https://tribunais.org.pt.

Since it was necessary to regulate the actors in distributions, including extraordinary ones, the legislator did it in the following way:

a) The president of the court appoints a judge to preside and a substitute, for cases in which the president is prevented from attending;

b) The coordinating Public Prosecutor or the Public Prosecutor who ensures the coordination of the Public Prosecution Service in the higher courts shall appoint a Public Prosecutor to assist him/her and a substitute, for cases where he/she is prevented from attending;

(c) The court administrator or the clerk of the superior court shall designate a court clerk to act as secretary and a substitute, in cases where the clerk is prevented from attending;

d) The Bar Association may designate a lawyer to assist and a substitute, for cases in which he is prevented from attending.

In this form of distribution, the court clerk is responsible for informing the interveners of the place where the decisions, rulings, orders and guidelines that condition the distribution operations performed in that court can be consulted, and these same decisions and rulings are kept updated by the president of the court in the digital services area of the courts, accessible at the website https://tribunais.org.pt, and their history is preserved.

At the end of the distribution operation, the system presents the respective results and, by determination of the presiding judge, a new distribution operation is triggered in the computer system, and its basis is recorded in the minutes, when:

a) Cases are distributed to judges who are known to be impeded from intervening in them;

b) If you notice any irregularity or error.

 

Article 17 obliges the process unit to verify, when the electronic distribution was made, the occurrence of the grounds for refusal foreseen in paragraphs f) and h) of article 558 of the Civil Procedure Code, being these:

"Article 558

Refusal of the petition by the registry

1 - The following are grounds for rejection of the initial petition:

(...)

f) The prior payment of the court fee due or the granting of legal aid has not been proven, except in the case foreseen in no. 9 of article 552;

(...)

h) It is not written in Portuguese;"

 

The notification of refusal by the registry, like all others, must be done electronically.

 

Finally, article 18 that regulates the agenda and minutes regarding the publication of the distribution results. The publication of the distribution will be made at 5:00 p.m. Continental Portugal time, in the digital services area of the courts, accessible at https://tribunais.org.pt, for a period of six months. Once the distribution has been declared complete, the minutes will be signed by the judge, the public prosecutor, the bailiff, and the lawyer:

a) The date of distribution and the times of its beginning and end;

b) The identification of the central unit in which the distribution took place;

c) The name and function of the interveners;

d) The distribution operations performed;

e) The identified impediments, the respective reasons and the processes covered;

f) The assignment of a case to a judge and the respective legal grounds;

g) Information that the interveners wish to provide.

In conclusion, we would like to highlight the commitment made by the legislator in article 5 of Ordinance 86/2023, of March 27, that, within a maximum period of 4 months from the date this ordinance comes into effect, new functionalities will be progressively made available that will allow the practice, or speed up the practice, of the acts provided for in this ordinance, namely the preparation of the minutes documenting the distribution operations.