GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Anastasios Virvilios, Evangelia Sgountzou and Eirini Tsalapati, Machas & Partners
It is for each party to prove the facts relied on in support of its claims. The evidence to prove the claimant’s allegations does not have to be submitted with the opening statement when filing the appeal or remedy but is required to be submitted to the court within a certain period of time before the case is heard. The administration is required to introduce a file into the proceedings, which contains its opinion report. The administrative file contains both pub - lic and private documents relating to the case and held by the public authority. The administration is required to send the report of the administration’s opinions and the case file to the court within three months of the service of the appeal (for annulment proceedings) or at least 30 days before the hearing (for substantive proceedings). 9.6 Initial Sifting Process In order for the administrative court to proceed to a review of the merits of the case, it must examine whether the appeal is admissible. It does so, by examining whether the conditions of admissibility are fulfilled. In particular, it exam - ines the: • capacity of the party; • capacity to bring legal proceedings; • nature of the contested act; • existence of a legitimate interest of the per - son bringing the appeal; • observance, if any, of the procedure for administrative appeals (if provided for by law); • timely lodging of the appeal; and • payment of any administrative or court fee. In particular, where the law provides for the observance of an administrative appeal proce -
dure, the party must comply with that procedure before bringing an action before the court. If they do not, any appeal lodged will be inadmissible and will not be considered by the court. The purpose of observing the administrative appeals procedure is to assist the work of the courts, in the sense that the cases are brought before them in their actual and legal aspects, in addi - tion to protecting the rights of the administered persons. 9.7 Expedited Proceedings In line with the provisions of Law 4055/2012, if a case has not been heard for a period of more than 24 months from the filing of the initial state - ment of claim, any of the parties may, by applica - tion to the court, request that the proceedings be expedited. The sole criterion for submitting an application for expedition is that the case has not been heard for more than 24 months from the beginning of the proceedings. In other words, it is not necessary to put forward reasons of a substantive nature to justify the request. Furthermore, Articles 211 et seq of the CAP pro - vide for the institution of the provisional adjudi - cation of a claim. Under those Articles, where an action to set aside a claim arising out of pecuniary damages has been brought, the court may, at the request of the plaintiff, provisionally award them the part of the claim they brought the action for. If the application is granted, part of the claim will be provisionally awarded, but not more than half of the claim in respect of which the action was brought. In the case of natural persons, the impossibility or particular difficulty of the claimant to meet their own and their family’s immediate living requirements may constitute grounds for pro - visional enforcement of a claim. In the case of
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