Deadlines in labor proceedings: what changes compared with the CPC

Lawyers who practice before Brazil's Labor Courts must master two sets of rules: the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws), with its own procedural rules, and the CPC, applied supplementarily and subsidiarily when the CLT is silent and the rules are compatible.

Business days in the Labor Courts too

With the Labor Reform (Law 13,467/2017), article 775 of the CLT now provides that procedural deadlines are counted in business days, excluding the starting day and including the final day. The change brought labor deadline counting closer to the CPC and eliminated one of the biggest sources of error for lawyers practicing in both court systems.

Year-end suspension

The suspension of deadlines from December 20 to January 20 also applies to labor proceedings, as expressly provided in the CLT. During this period deadlines stop, and they resume for the remaining time.

Day-to-day points of attention

• Single or split hearings: the defense and documents have their own moment; check the hearing schedule and the format set by the judge;
• Appeals: the deadline for an ordinary appeal and for an appeal to the Superior Labor Court is 8 days, counted in business days;
• Appeal bond and court costs: payment has its own deadline and requirements — a mistake here leads to dismissal of the appeal;
• Electronic notices: follow the e-filing system (PJe) and the gazettes with the same discipline as in civil proceedings.

The routine of firms with many labor cases

Labor law firms usually have high volume and short deadlines. In this scenario, manual control doesn't scale: every notice must become a deadline with a person in charge on the same day, and every hearing must be on the calendar with the client informed.

How IntegraLegal solves this

IntegraLegal automatically captures case updates, publications and court notices, calculates deadlines in business days and organizes everything in a single calendar with deadlines, hearings and tasks. Labor-specific case fields (position, salary, hiring and termination dates) are on the same record, and the person's data is filled in automatically from their profile.

For high-volume firms, this means less typing and more time for strategy. See the IntegraLegal plans or try it free for 7 days.

Read also

• How to count procedural deadlines under the CPC without missing the day
• Local court holidays: the detail that can make a filing untimely
• Hearings without delays: how to organize the firm’s calendar

Notice: this content is for information only. It does not replace a lawyer's analysis of the specific case. Always check the legislation, case law and rules in force on the date of your consultation.