Amendment to the Czech Civil Code: allowing substitute delivery of payment orders to electronic data boxes after 10 days: speeding up proceedings, but also creating new risks for the less vigilant
An amendment to the Czech Civil Procedure Code entered into force this summer. This amendment introduces the possibility of delivering payment orders, including electronic ones, to the defendant’s data box – an option that was previously unavailable.
Previously, the payment order had to be delivered to the defendant in person, and substitute delivery was excluded. If it was not possible to serve the order in person (e.g. because the defendant did not receive mail at his address or did not log in to his data box), the courts had to cancel the payment orders issued.
This ended for all defendants with a data box (it should be noted that in the Czech Republic, all legal entities as well as entrepreneurs – natural persons – must have a data box, while individuals can choose to set one up and many have already done so).
If the defendant has a data box, the payment order is now deemed to have been served as soon as it is accessed by an authorised person. If the data box remains unopened for 10 days, it is automatically deemed delivered on the last day of that period.
As the courts issue payment orders solely on the basis of the claimant’s application and evidence, defendants are not heard during the procedure. They have only 15 days from the date of service of the order to lodge an objection to it and, if they do so, the order is set aside and the procedure becomes a traditional contradictory one.
If the objections are not lodged within this time limit, the payment order becomes final and enforceable, like a judgment, and it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to challenge it at a later stage, even if there would have been a sound defence.
While this amendment brings speed and efficiency to the payment order procedure for claimants, it also creates new risks for those who are less vigilant and do not regularly check their data boxes.
It is therefore essential to set up a system of regular monitoring of data boxes (it is not rare for some companies, especially smaller ones or those managed from abroad or branches of foreign companies, to have certain gaps in the management of their data boxes).
