Libro Primero Título IV. Los actos procesales

The first application submitted to the Tribunals of Justice shall contain the following:

1º.Designation of the judge or tribunal to whom it is addressed.

2º.Full given names and surnames of the applicant or of the person representing the applicant, their age, marital status, nationality, profession or occupation, domicile and indication of the place to receive notifications.

3º.Statement of the facts to which the petition refers.

4º.Basis in law on which the application is grounded, citing the respective laws.

5º.Given names, surnames and residence of the persons from whom a right is claimed; if the residence is unknown, this shall be stated.

6º.The request, in precise terms.

7º.Place and date.

8º.Signatures of the applicant and of the licensed attorney sponsoring the applicant, as well as the latter’s seal. If the applicant does not know how to sign or cannot sign, another person or the assisting attorney shall sign on their behalf.

Other petitions on the same matter need not contain the personal identification and residence data of the applicant or of the other parties, but they must be assisted by the directing attorney. If the latter changes, such circumstance must be expressly stated; in cases of urgency, in the discretion of the tribunal, the assistance of another licensed attorney may be accepted.

Of every pleading and document filed, as many clearly legible copies, on plain paper or photocopy, must be delivered as there are opposing parties to be notified, at whose disposal they shall remain from the time they are filed.

For the purposes of this article, those who litigate jointly and under the same representation shall be considered as a single party.

Litigants shall file an additional copy, duly signed, which the Tribunal shall use to replace the case file in case of loss.

The pleadings shall state the number of copies accompanying them.

The time limits and terms prescribed in this Code for the parties to perform procedural acts are peremptory and inextendable, unless otherwise provided by law.

Upon expiry of a procedural time limit or term, the decision corresponding to the stage of the proceedings shall be issued, without need for any action.

The enabling of non-business days and hours may be requested for the performance of proceedings without whose completion the exercise of a right would be at serious risk.

The enabling must be requested before the non-business days or hours.

Every decision must be made known to the parties in the legal form and without it they are not bound nor may they be affected in their rights. The other persons to whom the decision refers shall also be notified.

Notifications shall be made, as applicable:

1.Personally.

2.By the notice boards of the tribunal.

3.By the book of copies.

4.By the Judicial Bulletin.

Interested parties or their lawful representatives shall be notified personally.

1º.The claim, the counterclaim and the first decision issued in any matter.

2º.The decisions ordering that the parties be informed which judge or tribunal is competent to continue hearing, by virtue of a granted inhibition, excuse or recusal.

3º.The decisions requiring the presence of any person for an act or for the performance of a procedural step.

4º.Those setting a time limit for a person to do, refrain from doing, deliver, sign or express agreement or disagreement with anything.

5º.The decisions on opening, reception or denial of evidence.

6º.The decisions ordering a warning and those making such warning effective.

7º.The setting of a day for the hearing.

8º.The decisions ordering steps for better adjudication.

9º.Orders and judgments.

10.The decisions granting or denying an appeal.

These notifications may not be waived.

Every personal notification shall be recorded on the same day it is made and shall state the time and place where it was made and shall be signed by the notified person; but if the latter refuses to sign it, the notifier shall attest to that fact and the notification shall be valid.

All other notifications shall be made to the litigants by the court notice boards or by the books of copies of the Tribunal and shall take effect two days after the notices have been posted on the notice boards or the copies have been added to the respective files.

In addition, a copy thereof shall be sent to them by mail to the address designated for receiving notifications, without this requirement affecting the validity of the notifications made as indicated in the preceding paragraph. The notifying officer who fails to comply with sending copies by mail shall incur the sanctions set forth in Article 69 of this Code.

The Supreme Court of Justice, by agreement, shall organize the Judicial Bulletin, prescribing the form and type of notifications that may be made through said Bulletin.

A carbon copy, complete and legible, shall be kept of every decision, which the secretary shall sign and seal, recording the date on which he signs it and identifying the respective case file. Said copies shall be compiled duly ordered and foliated, according to the different classes of matters being processed. The secretary of the Tribunal shall compile the copies of decisions of a precautionary nature in confidential form and under his own responsibility. The secretary must comply with the obligations imposed upon him by this article within twenty-four hours after issuance of the decision, under penalty of a fine of five quetzales for the first time he fails to comply; of ten quetzales for the second, and of removal from office for the third.

The copies of the decisions shall also serve for the replacement of any case file that may be lost.

Upon making any of the notifications referred to in Article 67, the copy of the application shall be delivered with the transcription of the decision rendered therein, or only of the decision where it has not been rendered upon an application, in all cases identifying the respective case file.

To effect personal notifications, the notifier of the Tribunal or a notary designated by the judge at the expense of the applicant and whose appointment shall fall preferably upon the person proposed by the interested party, shall go to the house indicated by the latter and, failing that, to that of his known residence or place where he is habitually found, and if he does not find him, he shall effect the notification by means of a cedula which he shall deliver to relatives or domestics or to any other person living in the house. If they refuse to receive it, the notifier shall affix it to the door of the house and shall state at the foot of the cedula the date and time of delivery and shall place in the case file a record of having notified in that manner.

These notifications may also be effected by delivering into the recipient's own hands, wherever he may be found within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, the copy of the application and its decision, or only a copy of the latter, as indicated in the preceding article. When the notification is effected by a notary, the judge shall deliver to the latter the original and copies of the application or memorial and of the corresponding decision, the notary being required to sign in the book the acknowledgment of receipt. Notaries shall record the notification immediately following the relevant order or decision.

The attorneys of the litigants may not act as notifying notaries in the proceedings in question.

The certificate shall contain the identification of the proceedings, the date and time at which the notification is made, the name and surnames of the person to whom the copy of the decision and that of the pleading is delivered, where applicable; the statement of having been delivered or affixed to the door, the signature of the notifier and the seal of the tribunal and of the notary, where applicable.

When a person residing outside the place of the proceedings is to be notified or summoned, the notification or summons shall be made by means of an exhorto or despacho addressed to the judge of First Instance if the person resides in the departmental capital or addressed to the corresponding minor judge if the person resides in a municipality.

When the suplicatorio or rogatory commission is to be sent to a judge or tribunal of another country, it shall be done through the Supreme Court of Justice.

When the notifier knows, through personal knowledge or through reports given to the notifier at the house of the person to be notified, that such person is absent from the Republic or has died, the notifier shall abstain from delivering or affixing the cédula, and shall enter a note in the record, stating how the notifier learned of it and who provided the information, so that the tribunal may order what is to be done.

Notifications must be made to the parties or to their representatives, and those that are personal shall be effected within twenty-four hours, under penalty to the notifier of a fine of two quetzales, unless due to the number of those who must be notified a longer time is required in the opinion of the judge.

The judge or the president of the Tribunal have the obligation to review, each time a decision is to be rendered, whether the notifications were made in time and, where applicable, they shall impose the corresponding sanctions. If they fail to do so, they shall incur a fine of ten quetzales which the superior Tribunal shall impose on them.

In notifications, no arguments or filing of remedies shall be admitted, unless the law or the decision provides otherwise.

Notifications made in a form different from that provided for in this chapter shall be null; and whoever authorizes them shall incur a fine of five to ten quetzales, and shall, in addition, be liable for any damage and losses that have originated through his fault.

Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding article, if the interested party has manifested in the proceedings awareness of the decision, the notification shall produce its effects from that time, as if it had been lawfully made; but the notifier shall not thereby be relieved of the liability stated in the preceding article.

Likewise, whoever has manifested in the proceedings awareness of the decision shall be deemed notified, even if it has not been notified.

Litigants have the obligation to designate a house or place situated within the perimeter of the town where the Tribunal to which they apply resides, to receive notifications, and such notifications as are appropriate shall be made to them there, even if they change dwelling, until they indicate another place where they should be made to them within the same perimeter. In the capital, they shall fix such place within the sector comprised between First and Twelfth Avenues and First and Eighteenth Streets of Zone One, unless the office of a licensed attorney is designated for such purpose.

No action shall be given to initial requests in which the interested party does not fix a place to receive notifications in accordance with the foregoing. However, the defendant and the other persons to whom the decision refers shall be notified the first time at the place indicated by the applicant. A person who fails to designate in the prescribed manner a place to receive notifications shall continue to be notified by the notice board of the Tribunal, without need for any warning.

In minor Trial Courts where there is no notification officer, the respective secretary or the person authorized for that purpose shall make the notifications, summoning the interested party to appear at the tribunal.

If he fails to appear after the first summons, the decisions referred to in Article 67 shall be notified to him in the manner provided in Article 71.

Procedural acts that cannot be performed in the place where the proceedings are being conducted shall be entrusted to the judge of the corresponding place.

Letters rogatory, writs and supplicatory letters shall contain, in addition to the customary formalities, a complete copy of the decision to be notified and an indication of the procedural act to be performed, where applicable, and copies of the pleadings and documents required by law shall accompany them.

The secretary or the notifier shall enter in the case file a record signed by them stating the date on which the exhorto, despacho or suplicatorio is issued, the judge to whom it is addressed, the means of conveyance — which may be the interested party himself —, the number of folios and the annexes contained therein.

The secretary of the Commissioned Tribunal shall record the date and time of receipt. The judge, on the same day on which he receives the commission, shall order the performance of the procedural act, which shall be carried out within the following three days, unless the acts to be carried out require more time, which shall be placed on record, or unless the commissioning authority, due to the nature thereof, has designated a day and time for that purpose. Once these are concluded, the proceedings shall be returned immediately and on its own initiative.

The commissioned authority who fails to comply with the prescriptions of this article shall be subject to a fine of five quetzales, imposed by the respective superior, on its own initiative or at the request of an interested party.

If the person with whom the procedural act is to be carried out resides in another department, the judge shall transfer the commission to the respective judge, giving notice to the commissioning judge.

If the commissioned judge is impeded, he shall pass the commission to the one who must replace him, without needing to resort again to the judge from whom the commission emanated.

The commissioned persons and the executors are liable for omission, negligence or faults committed by them in the performance of the commission.

Judicial case files shall be formed on sheets of stamped paper, in accordance with the prescriptions of the law on the matter.

A party in default in compliance with the fiscal laws taxing the proceedings may not file new pleadings nor make any petition until it regularizes its situation.

However, appeal pleadings and memorials requesting the taking of evidence shall be allowed to proceed, but the judge shall order the replacement of the paper with that of the corresponding stamp, as provided in the following article.

When a litigant whose duty it is to provide the stamped paper fails to do so, Spanish paper supplied by the Trial Court shall be used, subject to replacement with that of the corresponding stamp, by means of adhesive stamps to be affixed to the supplied sheets, plus the value of the Spanish paper and ten cents of a quetzal per sheet, by way of fine, which shall be paid into the Justice funds. In case of doubt as to which of the parties must supply the paper, the judge shall decide, under his responsibility.

To make effective the replacement of the paper supplied in the manner indicated, a time limit shall be set for the party obliged to effect the replacement, under warning of a fine to be fixed by the judge.

The Tribunal shall not issue certifications nor extend attestations to the parties that have not complied with their fiscal obligations in the proceedings.

Those who lack resources to litigate, by reason of their poverty, may apply for the benefit of litigating free of charge in accordance with the following provisions.

The person declared entitled to free judicial assistance shall litigate on Spanish paper, shall be assisted by an attorney and shall not be obligated to pay fees, the posting of deposits and other expenses occasioned by the proceedings, unless his fortune improves.

Whoever requests the declaration shall appear before the judge competent to hear the proceedings in which he is to enjoy the benefit, proposing testimonial information and such other evidence as justifies his state of poverty. Of the petition, a hearing shall be given in accordance with the procedure for incidents to the person with whom he is to litigate and to the Public Prosecutor's Office.

If there is no opposition, the judge shall immediately receive the evidence and shall decide within a term not exceeding five days. If there is opposition, the judge shall open the incident to evidence for a term of ten days and then shall decide within the following three days.

The proceedings initiated to obtain the declaration shall always be processed in a separate record, so that the remedies filed do not interrupt the course of the principal matter.

When it is urgent to issue the decision requested and if, in the opinion of the judge, the poverty of the applicant is notorious, the judge may provisionally grant the benefit of free judicial assistance, which shall be valid for the term of two months.

The benefits produced by the declaration shall cease from the time the favored party acquires property that improves their fortune. The declaration of the cessation of the effects may be requested by the Public Prosecutor's Office or by the defendant, and shall also be processed in a separate record and by the incidental procedure.