By: Alexandra Haeussler, Michelle Sutter

On March 11, 2022, the Congress of the Republic approved Decree 13-2022, which contains the Law of Electronic Processing of Judicial Records. The purpose of this law is to establish and regulate the computerized processing of all judicial proceedings.

Its main objective is to make available to the population and the justice system the use of information and communication technologies for the knowledge, development, prosecution, trial, and execution of the processes in an agile and effective manner.

Said law is of public order, for which reason it shall be applicable to all judicial proceedings heard by the courts of justice. Consequently, said law is of mandatory use of the electronic media that the Judicial Branch implements for all the institutions of the State.

Important aspects of such law:

1. The judicial proceedings that require it and that are carried out through digital means shall bear the jurisdictional internal electronic signature and with the institutional advanced electronic signature of the Judicial Branch. (Agreement 75-2017).

2. The lawsuit, initial brief or first appearance and other writs may be filed by electronic means, but in the same way physical copies must be accompanied to the court within 3 days of the filing of the brief in digital form.

3. The documents of rigor, as well as annexes or documentary evidence must be digitized in PDF format perfectly legible.

4. All pleadings, resolutions and other procedural actions must be registered in the computer system of the Judicial Branch to create a complete judicial file.

5. It is authorized the filing of evidence by electronic means, if it is done freely and spontaneously without any coercion whatsoever.

6. Hearings and hearings shall be carried out using any suitable technological means so that the parties and attorneys may be present in real time, even if they are in different places. The proceedings shall be recorded in laconic minutes. The identification documents of the parties and the attorneys must be uploaded in PDF format to the digital platform indicated by the judge.

7. Notifications to the parties and attorneys may be made by electronic means.

8. All state entities must adhere to the electronic mailbox system to receive communications.

9. Litigants must indicate the electronic mailbox of their attorneys to receive notifications.

10. It is a mandatory requirement for all attorneys and notaries to adhere to the electronic mailbox at the time of registration in the Registry of Attorneys and Notaries of the Supreme Court of Justice.

11. For the procedural subjects that have not yet indicated an electronic mailbox for the processes in process, they must do so within a term not exceeding two pesos counted as of the effective date of this decree.

12. Notifications made by electronic means shall be valid and shall have the effects established in the procedural laws.

13. The Supreme Court of Justice is hereby empowered to implement the court dockets with full effects of law.

14. Requests for reports on individual or legal persons regarding documents, acts, goods, rights, annotation and lifting of precautionary measures or any court order, shall be made by computer systems and means of communication.

15. To use the electronic services, the procedural parties, attorneys, and State entities must have their own user of the electronic services portal of the Judicial Branch.

Of the repealing and amending provisions resulting from the present decree

A. Section 2 of Article 61 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure is modified with respect to the requirements of the general information to be provided, establishing among these the obligation to indicate the electronic box to receive notifications.

B. Article 63 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure is modified as to the copies that must be filed within the day following the electronic filing of the first request.

C. Article 66 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure is modified as to the way notifications are to be made, now allowing them to be made by “electronic means”.

D. Article 67 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure is modified as to the mechanism established to notify the parties, since it indicates that they must be notified by electronic means, except in the case where a person other than the one who has filed the first request must be notified for the first time, it must be done by personal notification.

E. Article 68 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure is modified with respect to notifications through the “Estrados”, since if the parties do not indicate their electronic mailbox, they will be notified through the “estrados” of the court.

F. Article 70 of the Civil and Mercantile Procedural Code is modified to the fact that when notifications are made, a copy of the petition with the transcription of the resolution issued therein will be delivered.

G. A paragraph is added to Article 71 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure, which indicates that all personal notifications shall be recorded on the same day they are made and shall state the time and place where they were made and shall be signed by the person notified, but if he/she refuses, the notifier shall attest to it, and it shall be valid.

H. Article 79 of the Code of Civil and Commercial Procedure is modified with respect to the obligation of the litigants to indicate an electronic box to receive notifications, as well as the same obligation of any person who appears in the process.

I. Article 327 of the Labor Code is modified to indicate that all resolutions must also be notified to the parties by electronic means,

J. Article 328 of the Labor Code is amended to indicate that notifications, regardless of the resolution in question, shall be made by electronic means, as well as the obligation to indicate an electronic box to receive notifications.

K. Article 329 of the Labor Code is amended to indicate that the notifications made to the litigants through the dockets will take effect two days after being posted.

This decree shall enter into effect 180 days after its publication in the Official Gazette.