On March 20th 2020, Parliament passed the ’2nd COVID Act’, which contains, among other things, rules on the interruption of procedural deadlines. The law came into force on March 22nd 2020 and will expire at the end of December 31st 2020.
In judicial civil proceedings, all procedural deadlines are interrupted until the end of April 30th 2020 if the event triggering the deadline falls on or after March 22nd 2020 or if the deadline has not yet expired on March 22nd 2020. The relevant period shall start to run anew on May 1st 2020.
However, the court may declare in the respective proceedings that a period is not interrupted for the aforementioned duration. In such a case, the court shall at the same time fix a new appropriate period. This decision may not be appealed against. The interruption of the time limit shall not apply to proceedings in which the court decides on the legality of an upright deprivation of liberty under the Housing Act, the Home Residence Act, the Tuberculosis Act or the Epidemics Act, nor to time limits for performance.
![](https://actlegal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Tanja-Verbunkic_Professional-480x400.jpg)