In view of the blackout that affected Spain yesterday, the General Council of the Judiciary (Consejo General del Poder Judicial) issued an urgent communiqué, recalling that this situation is provided for in Spanish procedural law.
Specifically, the law stipulates that when the submission of due documents cannot be made by electronic means due to the interruption of the system, in this case, the unplanned blackout, such due documents may be submitted on the following working day. Therefore, all deadlines that expired yesterday, including the grace period of one day, would have been extended extended until today, at the same time as their original due date.
However, the General Council of the Judiciary informed today, that, due to the force majeure caused by the blackout yesterday, the suspension of these deadline will be extended until today, i.e. for the effects of calculating the end of the deadline, neither yesterday (28 April) nor today (29 April) will be taken into account.
In contrast to a planned interruption of the electronic communication services, which requires proof of the interruption to be provided with the statement or document in question, it is not necessary to do so when, as in the case of yesterday’s blackout, the determining event is absolutely evident and general, a circumstance which is also provided for in Spanish procedural law and which is of supplementary application to all jurisdictional orders.