NEWSLETTER-2021

224 NEWSLETTER 2021 The Start of the Legal Period/Notice Date for Electronic Notifications in the Light of Judicial Decisions* Ece Özsü Electronic notification to certain persons, including attorneys registered with the Bar Association, has become obligatory in accordance with the Article 7/a of the Notification Law numbered 7201 (“NL”). The procedures and principles regarding electronic notification are outlined in the Electronic Notification Regulation (“Regulation”) in the Official Gazette dated 6 December 2018 and numbered 30617. Article 7/a of the NL and paragraph 6 of Article 9 of the Regulation contain the provision that “an electronically made notification shall be deemed to have been made at the end of the fifth day following the date on which the addressee’s electronic address is reached.” The Regulation clearly envisages that electronic notifications will be deemed to have been made at the end of this period whether they are opened by the addressee or not. Unfortunately, while the statutory and regulatory language is clear, courts have unnecessarily muddied the waters. In numerous judicial decisions, courts have examined whether the legal periods for electronic notifications should be calculated from the date of delivery or from the time that the notification was opened. In this article, I will examine these decisions. Decision of the Constitutional Court In its decision published in the Official Gazette dated 04.03.2020 and numbered 31058, the Constitutional Court (“CC”) examined when the legal period for an individual application to the CC would start and assessed whether the individual application was made within the time limit. * Article of August, 2021

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