UPC Local Division Hamburg, 28 November 2023: deadline for lodging response to Statement of defence
07-12-2023 Print this page
The start of time limit of two months for responding to the Statement of Defence which includes a Counterclaim for revocation (Rule 29a RoP) is to be set on the date of the conclusion of the R. 262A proceedings, i.e. 8 November 2023.
With regard to the right to be heard and the interest of a proper defence against the plaintiff's response, in the case of applications for the protection of secrets, the point in time from which the party representatives can fully discuss the opposing party's pleading with their own party or the group of persons authorised by the court for their own party must be taken into account. As a rule, this is only possible once the confidentiality proceedings have been concluded in accordance with Rule 262A RoP. In the present case, it is significant that the application pursuant to R. 262A VerfO was only partially granted after hearing the plaintiff, with the result that an updated statement of defence and partially unredacted attachments had to be submitted. Only these documents could be discussed with the plaintiff itself or the named group. Prior to this, the statement of defence had only been made available to the party representative himself under a confidentiality order. The start of the deadline is therefore to be set on the date of the conclusion of the R. 262A proceedings, i.e. 8 November 2023 (cf. declaratory procedural order of this date). This does not constitute an xtension of the deadline.
Opposing party to be heard on synchronizing time limit for replying to the nullity counterclaim with the time limit for replying to the Statement of Defence (Rule 264 RoP).
