In this case, a summary dismissal fell apart, from the employer’s perspective, because of a fax sent too late to the court. A fax? Yes, a fax!
The fax transmission report showed that the petition to annul a summary dismissal had been sent at 23:59. However, the court’s fax machine recorded receipt at 00:05. The Court of Appeal ruled: the court’s receipt record is decisive. The petition was therefore not accepted.
Knowledge of fax machines is vital.
A fax is a rather old-fashioned means of communication that is still used by the courts and the UWV. In fact, this is because all IT projects aimed at achieving more modern digital communication have, so far, failed. You still cannot email documents in! In short, there are three ways one can submit documents to the court and the UWV:
1) by post;
2) by personal delivery;
3) by fax.
A fax is a means of communication (invented in 1843) that can read a document and send it over the phone line. Conversely, the machine can receive and print a document.
Counsel misjudged the technology.
A fax works a lot more slowly than sending an email. The lawyer in this case misjudged that. The lawyer thought that as long as he made sure the first page had already been sent and received before midnight, it wouldn’t matter that the remaining pages arrived after midnight, i.e. the following day. In the meantime, it no longer works such that the receiving party’s fax machine records the receipt time of the first page, but only once the entire document has come in. Faxing has since been somewhat modernised, so that the document is now sent as a scanned digital package as a whole, rather than in the old analogue page-by-page manner. The time and date on the court’s (or the UWV’s) confirmation of receipt is therefore decisive.
Tip
First, make sure you have a lawyer who files their documents several days in advance. And if it does have to come down to the wire, make sure it’s at least someone who knows what a fax is and how faxing works in 2020. In the meantime, we of course fervently hope that the hopelessly outdated digital communication options at the courts and the UWV will still be resolved this decade.
Questions or advice?
The lawyers at The Legal Company specialise in the fields of employment law, contract law, company law and privacy law. Should you have any questions or would like advice on this, email or call us on 020-3450152 or info@thelegalcompany.nl
Nothing changes as often as laws and regulations. We would like to point out that our blogs may no longer be in line with current laws and regulations and may therefore be outdated. If you have questions or a problem relating to this blog, or if you require legal assistance, please contact us.
