We analyze the new features of Law 42/2015 reforming the Civil Procedure Law.
On October 7th, Law 42/2015, of October 5th, reforming Law 1/2000 of January 7th, on Civil Procedure, came into force, whose main novelty would be to foresee the long-awaited disappearance of paper in the Administration of Justice, giving way to electronic communication as the usual way of acting in said Administration.
Therefore, as of January 1, 2016, all legal professionals, courts, and public prosecutors will be required to use electronic and telematic systems for filing pleadings and documents and for carrying out procedural communications. This will mean that judges will be able to use email addresses and telephone numbers to locate defendants, with the resulting procedural advantages. Furthermore, interested parties may be notified by SMS to their mobile phones that a notification is to be served, and communications may be carried out at the email address provided by the recipient.
Notwithstanding these provisions, those relating to the electronic filing of powers of attorney in court and the use by interested parties who are not legal professionals of the existing telematic systems in the Administration of Justice for the presentation of documents and the performance of procedural communication acts in the terms indicated above, will come into force on January 1, 2017.
Let's hope that the Project, for which the Ministry of Justice plans to allocate €47.6 million from its budget this year, doesn't just fizzle out (literally) and that legal professionals don't have to see its implementation delayed due to a lack of resources. Only time will tell.
Another important innovation of the reform would be the modification of the regulation of the oral trial by introducing the figure of the written response to the claim within the period of 10 days (half that for the ordinary trial), so that the plaintiff-claimant will appear in court knowing in advance the grounds of opposition of the defendant, something that did not happen before, thus taking advantage of the reform to reinforce the guarantees derived from the constitutional right to effective judicial protection, and which are the result of the practical application of the Civil Procedure Law and which had been demanded by the different legal operators.
The possibility of agreeing to a closing argument procedure is also clarified and finally introduced (previously, some courts agreed to this and others did not, causing legal uncertainty), and a new, much more protective system of appeals is established against decisions admitting or denying the admission of evidence. Finally, the parties may request in their pleadings that the case be resolved without a hearing, meaning the proceedings may be considered concluded if the court accepts the request.
Another important aspect of the Law is that it complies with the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 14 June 2012 in the Banco Español de Crédito case, C-618/10, where, after examining the regulation of the summary proceedings in Spain, in relation to Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, it declared that Spanish legislation is not in accordance with European Union law on consumer protection, insofar as it does not allow the judge hearing a claim in summary proceedings, even when he has the necessary factual and legal elements for this purpose, to examine ex officio—in limine litis or at any stage of the proceedings—the unfairness of a clause on default interest contained in a contract concluded between a professional and a consumer, when the latter has not objected.
For this reason, a new section 4 is introduced in Article 815 of the Civil Procedure Law, which will allow the Judge, before the court clerk agrees to make the request, to check for the possible existence of abusive clauses in the contracts on which the summary proceedings against consumers or users are based and, if necessary, after holding a hearing with summons to both parties, to resolve the appropriate matter, as required by European regulations.
Finally, this reform also serves to implement an initial update to the statute of limitations regime contained in the Civil Code, a matter of great importance to the legal and economic lives of citizens. Based on the work of the General Codification Commission, the general limitation period for personal actions under Article 1964 is shortened to five years. Furthermore, Article 1973 of the Civil Code, concerning the interruption of the statute of limitations, is amended so that successive extrajudicial claims may extend the statutory limitation period. This achieves a balance between the creditor's interest in preserving their claim and the need to ensure a maximum limitation period. The transitional provision on this matter allows for the application of a more balanced regime to personal actions arising before the entry into force of this law, with the new five-year period taking effect.
Olga García
Civil-Criminal Area
Àmbit Assesor
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