COVID-19: New exceptional and temporary measures were approved for the Portuguese Justice and Courts regarding the procedure for the service of documents

The key elements of this legal framework that should be highlighted are listed below:

1. The obligation to have the recipient sign a delivery note when receiving a registered letter or a postal parcel is suspended.

2. The signature requirement is replaced with the identification of the recipient, verbally or through the citizen’s ID card number or any other suitable identification method, with the reception date being attached thereto.

3. In the event of a refusal to disclose and supply the data referred to in the preceding paragraph, the postal service deliverer shall write a note about the incident in the delivery note or acknowledgement of receipt and return it to the sender.

4. In the cases provided for in the preceding paragraph, whatever the process or procedure may be, the act of certification of the occurrence shall be deemed as valid notification, where applicable.

5. Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding paragraph, summonses and notifications delivered by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt shall be deemed to have been made on the date on which the citizen's card number or any other legal means of identification is collected.

6. The above measures shall apply mutatis mutandis to summons and notifications served by personal delivery.

This exceptional and temporary scheme came into force on April 19, 2020 and will remain in effect until the exceptional situation of prevention, containment, mitigation and treatment of the epidemiological infection by SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 disease comes to an end.