Restoration of expired time

An application for restoration of expired time is a request to re-start the time frame for, most commonly, appealing against a ruling.

For such an application to be approved, the applicant must have a lawful excuse (valid reason) for having missed the original deadline. Simply put, this means that the applicant must show that the delay was due to something outside his or her control or something he or she could not reasonably have foreseen (for example a serious illness preventing the timely lodging of an appeal).

The Supreme Court approves only a small percentage of the restoration of expired time applications it receives.

If you wish to apply for restoration of expired time

In most situations where a deadline for lodging an appeal has been exceeded, there is also a deadline by which a restoration application must be submitted for it to be tried by the court. An application for restoration of expired time must be submitted within three weeks of the ending of whatever prevented the timely lodging of an appeal, and no later than one year of the expiration of the original deadline.

An application for restoration of expired time in respect of a court of appeal ruling is to be sent to the Supreme Court. An application for restoration of expired time in respect of a district court ruling is to be sent to the court of appeal. It is vital that the application states the ruling to which it relates (court and case reference) and the reasons why it is considered that the application should be approved.

If an application for restoration of expired time is approved, the applicant is given a new time within which to appeal the ruling in question.

The application must be signed and submitted in the original.

The Code of Judicial Procedure (Chapter 58, Sections 11–13) has provisions on the restoration of expired time.

Updated
2020-09-04