Shrnutí: The concept of “legal power” is far from serving only lawyers. Knowing what it entails and being able to calculate when legal power comes into play is useful for everyone. If you’ve ever applied for planning permission, had a dispute with your mobile phone provider or been through a divorce, I’m sure the force of law has affected you too.
Legality means that the decision of a court or authority is final and cannot normally be appealed. It most often occurs after the time limit for appeal has expired. It is often only from the legal force that other time limits start to run – for example, for paying a debt, applying for foreclosure or starting construction under a building permit. However, legal force is not the same as enforceability. Some decisions are enforceable only later, others immediately.
Do you know whether your decision has already become final or whether you can still appeal? We can advise you.
Legal force is essentially the characteristic of a judicial or administrative decision that makes it final, binding and unalterable(by ordinary appeal). In practice, legal force is of fundamental importance – without it, a decision cannot be enforced or relied upon with certainty as to its permanence. You may encounter it, for example, in a maintenance judgment, an inheritance decree or the entry into force of a building permit, when only then can the builder actually start building. Even a final decision can be reversed in certain circumstances, but these are exceptional circumstances, i.e. with the use of exceptional remedies.
In practice, legal force is important for you, for example, if a court decision says that you have to pay a debt or fulfil another obligation imposed on you within three days of the judgment becoming final.
If you are going to build, then you must obtain a building permit within the period of validity of the planning decision, usually within two years of the date of the legal force. You will find this out on the document itself, on which the building authority will mark the legal force for you on request.
Are you not satisfied with the decision of the court or administrative authority and would you like to appeal? Do you need to write your appeal so that it is bulletproof and has a chance of success? We will assess your chances of success and suggest a legal solution.
The basic prerequisite for a decision or judgment to become final is:
The judgment then becomes final:
The further aspect of finality means that the case cannot be heard and decided again. If you are represented by a lawyer in the court proceedings, he or she will look after the legal force and any time limits for the appeal for you.
Both judicial and administrative proceedings may have exceptions and special rules. For some decisions, it is not easy to determine the moment of legal force, especially if there are multiple parties being served or multiple follow-up proceedings. If you are unsure, we recommend checking the date of legal effect directly with the court or with a lawyer.
What if you miss the deadline?
If you were unable to file your appeal (or other appeal) on time for serious reasons – for example, because of a sudden hospitalisation or other serious obstacle – you can apply to the court for a waiver of the delay under Section 58 of the Code of Civil Procedure. However, you must do so within 15 days of the date on which the obstacle ceased to exist, and at the same time file the procedural act that was missed (for example, the opposition or appeal). The court will then assess whether the reasons were excusable and grant the request.
Have you missed the appeal deadline and don’t know if there is still a defence? We will assess whether you can apply for a waiver of the delay or use another remedy.
Tip: Read about the legal force and other requirements and the criminal procedure itself .
Calculating the entry into force may seem quite simple – we know that it will occur, for example, 15 days after the decision is served, unless either party appeals. However – two factors can complicate the situation:
Imagine that you are served with a judgment on Friday, February 18, 2022. Adding fifteen days for filing an appeal brings us to March 5, which is, of course, a Saturday. Therefore, it would still be possible to appeal on Monday, March 7, and if that were not the case, the judgment would become final on Tuesday, March 8. The enforceability of the judgment would then also be postponed.
In practice, we often deal with situations where people miscalculate the running of the appeal period and think that the decision is already final. This is typically the case when the last day of the time limit falls on a weekend or public holiday. Errors also arise in the case of service by mailbox, where the time limit is calculated from the moment of registration or from the fiction of service. An incorrect calculation may mean that the possibility of lodging an appeal is lost.
If you want to make sure you don’t make a mistake in calculating the legal effect, you can use one of the freely available calculators on the internet.
If you need to prove that a decision has become final – for example, to apply for enforcement – you can ask the court to issue a certificate of legal force. The court will usually issue you with a document (or an electronic document) stating the date on which the decision became final. You can then attach this document to the application for enforcement or use it in other legal or official proceedings.
Need to quickly find out whether a decision is actually final and enforceable? We can help you check the status of the proceedings and prepare the next legal steps.
The legal force clause is (usually) stamped in the left-hand corner on the front of the decision.
Sometimes, however, a decision may be stamped with a legal force clause even though it is not yet final.
In our practice, we encounter incorrectly stamped legal force mainly in disputes where the parties have changed their address or have resided abroad for a long time. The authorities often rely on the fiction of service even though the addressee has not actually been informed of the decision. Such an error can have major consequences, for example, in enforcement or construction proceedings.
As a party to the proceedings, you may be personally and practically affected by such a situation: for example, you have not been served and could not have been served with the decision and it is now considered final and you cannot appeal against it.
If the legal force has been incorrectly indicated, you can either ask for it to be annulled or challenge the decision directly by means of an ordinary appeal, stating this fact in your appeal. The Court of Appeal (or administrative authority) will then first consider whether your objection is justified and, if it finds that it is, it will annul the legal force and hear the case.
Tip: Are you facing administrative proceedings or are you already involved in any? Read on to find out what is involved so that nothing surprises you.
We always talk about legal force in the context of judicial or administrative decisions. In the case of private legal acts, for example, contracts, we also set a certain date on which certain effects are attached, but in this case we are talking about effectiveness, not legal force. In the case of contracts, as a general rule, the date on which the last party signs the contract takes effect. However, if the law stipulates that a decision of the competent authority is required for a contract, the contract is only effective upon that decision.
As already mentioned above, legal force means that the effects of the decision can take place. For example, an obligation to perform a certain performance. This is to be distinguished from the so-called enforceability of a decision, where performance can be enforced even against the will of the person on whom it was imposed. This means that if the debtor has to pay the debt and is given 3 days from the legal force of the decision to pay it, then after the expiration of these days in vain the enforceability occurs and it is possible to enforce compliance by legal means. For some decisions (e.g. interim measures), enforceability may occur even without legal force.
Legality means that a decision of a court or administrative authority is final and cannot normally be challenged by appeal. It most often occurs after the expiry of the appeal period if no party files an appeal. Other important deadlines often depend on the legal force – for example, to comply with an obligation imposed by a judgment, to start enforcement proceedings or to use a building permit. However, legal force is not the same as enforceability. In some cases, a decision can only be enforced after the expiry of a further time limit; in others, it may be enforceable immediately. It is also important to correctly calculate the running of time limits and to verify the service of the decision. If there is an error in the marking of the legal effect or a missed appeal, there are situations where it is still possible to defend oneself.
The court can tell you the date of legal force or you can find it on the legal force clause directly on the decision.
Yes. These are typically interim measures or certain decisions in administrative proceedings.
If the addressee does not take delivery of the mail, the law may provide that it is deemed to have been delivered after a certain period of time, even if he or she has not actually read it.
In exceptional situations, yes, for example if the legal force was incorrectly marked or if there was a defective service.
Legal force refers to decisions of courts and authorities. The term “effectiveness” is used for contracts.
Has the court ruled against you and do you want to fight it? We will assess your chances of success and take care of preparing an appeal, appeal or constitutional complaint depending on the proceedings and their stage.
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 15 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 15 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
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