Procedural Acts in Legal Proceedings
PROCEDURAL ACTS
Procedural acts are legal acts that have a direct and immediate effect on the establishment, development, modification, or termination of proceedings or the reality of relations involved in the process.
Unlike other legal acts, procedural acts have specific forms and requirements that are absolutely necessary for their validity and effectiveness. These requirements include:
Form of Process
The form of process is generally established by law.
- Form Strict: This refers to whether processes are written or oral. Orality is preferred for penal procedural laws, and there have been attempts to implement orality for all legal areas.
- Language: Co-official languages are used in places where an indigenous language exists. Article 231.2 of the Judicial Power states that the official language of the autonomous region can also be used if it does not disadvantage the parties. In the acts of a party, it is always allowed to use the official language of the Autonomous Community, both in oral and written acts. Written procedural documents cannot be expressed in a foreign language because the judge is not obligated to understand it. In oral acts, parties can speak their own language with a translator.
- Publicity of Proceedings: Procedural acts are, in principle, public, although exceptions exist (e.g., separation cases and juvenile criminal cases where the court may decide to proceed behind closed doors for the protection of the victim). Public access ensures that judicial action can be controlled by members of the public. Deliberations of courts and voting outcomes are always secret, unless dissenting opinions are issued.
- Inefficiency and Correction of Procedural Acts: The LOPJ (Organic Law of Judicial Power) regulates the formal invalidity of procedural acts, as outlined in Article 238. The LOPJ includes the principle of conservation of procedural acts, which acts as a safeguard and ensures legal certainty by preserving the validity of procedural acts even when their invalidity could cause more harm than good.
Article 238 LOPJ: Procedural acts are null and void:
- When they occur on or before a tribunal with an obvious lack of jurisdiction or authority.
- When carried out under duress or intimidation.
- When essential procedural rules are disregarded, resulting in a lack of defense.
- When carried out without the intervention of an attorney, etc.
The invalidity of legal acts shall be asserted through normal channels of appeal and legal remedies.
Place, Time, and Manner of Proceedings
- Location: Judicial acts are typically carried out at the court’s headquarters, although exceptions exist.
- Time:
- Working Time: The judicial year runs from September 1st to July 31st, excluding August. Saturdays, Sundays, December 24th and 31st, national holidays, and regional holidays are non-working days. Court hours are from 8 am to 8 pm.
- Management of Procedural Measures: The procedure, including all subsequent acts, follows a specific order. When the logical order does not align with the temporal coordination of procedural acts, the law establishes an ad hoc priority to prevent overlap and ensure the process progresses efficiently.
- Deadlines:
- A deadline is a specific period for judicial activity.
- Landmarks or terms refer to a specific day and time.
- Deadlines are extended and do not include legal holidays. Periods calculated in months are calendar months, excluding legal holidays.
- The period begins the day after it is established and ends at 11:59 pm on the last day.
- While time limits and terms exist for judicial acts, failure to meet them does not necessarily prevent the court from performing the act, even if it is outside the designated timeframe.
Classification of Process
: Now we can sort of process as to who come from:
· If the parties are from: acts of the parties are those from the defendant or the plaintiff and that shape the process and produce a procedural step. The acts of the parties can be classified into two:
· ° Measures of application: are aimed at getting a response from the judge. Among them we can distinguish between:
· · Request: it requires the judge for a resolution of form or substance.
· Allegation: carried out according to a request by which the claims presented to the judge of fact and law with the purpose of Logar resolution postulated.
· Production of tests: aimed at convincing the judge of the truth of an allegation of fact.
· Completion or deductions: performance assessments that have been occurring in the same process.
· ° Measures of causation: effects directly in the process and directly create a procedural status. They are acts of causation, for example, the extension of the immunity pact.
· If coming from the court:
° ° material and formal planning process
· Resolutions: mandatory declarations of the will of the judiciary which is rigged a legal effect which is imposed by law, interlocutory orders, that the process-or content-background, who meet on claims relating to the background object process.
· · Rulings 208LEC: resolutions through which it carries out the management of the process. Unlike the formal planning procedure. 248 LOPJ
· Autos: choose resources that can bring on orders … 245LOPJ + 241pg. The formal requirement is motivation. (Fault = part). Separate paragraphs and numbered (findings of fact and law).
° Judgement: resolve definitively the dispute in any instance or appeal. OOS colleges: speaker, which makes the work and detailed investigation of the case and the motion court. Resolutions secret.
Published in a register and work easily given the sentence
267
· · Agreements.
· · Resolutions government room
· If coming from the clerk:
· · Function documentation:
· · Minutes: it records actions in sentences involving the secretary. Assistants, and agreements made over the signatures of the attendees.
· Proceedings: the finding of what has happened to a document-handed, reported, etc .-.
· · Judicial faith Fon: All documents signed by the Registrar is presumed valid and the content.
· · Dación account. The judge, at the beginning of a trial to the public on all the facts
· · Reform OJ: powers under the secretary who previously gave to the judge.
· · Measures of organization. Are taken by the Secretary to order the procedure.
• Decree: Sometimes, to make a decision within the meaning of solving an issue, and should therefore support it. In these cases, you must do so by decree. Also find us when the Secretary makes a decision to end the process
· Certification.
° Measures of communication.