About a legal amendment on the deadlines for challenging administrative decisions in court – the new article 58th, paragraph 3, subparagraph b) of the procedural code for administrative courts

Abstract

This article focuses on one amendment on the Procedural Code for Administrative Courts that was brought on by Decree-Law no. 214-G/2015. According with this new legal provision – that rules the counting of the deadlines to challenge administrative decisions –, when someone does not timely challenge an administrative decision due to a misconduct from the Public Administration, the regular three-month deadline for challenging the same decision in Court will only start counting after the plaintiff’s mistake ceases (regardless of the time elapsed since the administrative decision was issued). Despite this amendment, the applicable legal framework still does not address the problem of the hidden breaches of the administrative decision. If a hidden breach is only detected after the three-month deadline has expired, it cannot be invoked on a judicial claim destined to annul the administrative decision, but only in other kinds of judicial procedures.