Very often we hear about TAR, but what is it and when can we resort to it?
TAR is an abbreviation that identifies the Regional Administrative Court. It is an administrative court of first instance. An administrative act can be challenged in a judicial way (TAR, Council of State) or in an administrative way (hierarchical appeal and extraordinary appeal to the Head of State).
The ordinary citizen can appeal to the TAR if he feels injured for any administrative act.
There is a TAR in each Italian region and the citizen must apply to the court of jurisdiction of his region of residence. For acts of administrative authorities of ultraregional interest, the Lazio TAR is competent.
The appeal to the TAR is foreseen to obtain the annulment, revocation or modification of an administrative act deemed harmful to a legitimate interest.
To appeal to the TAR you must obviously have a valid administrative reason, a lawyer who will follow you in the procedures and be within the time limits established by law (usually 60 days).
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TAR appeal procedure
The Regional Administrative Court is the one that deals with disputes between private citizens and public administrations, universities and public bodies of various kinds. Certain requirements are necessary to appeal before the Regional Administrative Court. First of all you need to have an administrative lawyer and also, be within the time limits to appeal.
Another basic requirement is to have a valid reason and be an interested party to be able to present that particular objection before the administrative judge. One of the most important elements lies precisely in the time limits which are much narrower than in other courts.
Time limits are generally important in the legal category in all types of cases. Yet, for the appeal to the TAR, it is necessary that no more than sixty days have passed since the publication of the act. The act must therefore be challenged in very short terms. It is possible to count the days keeping in mind not only the working days, but all of them, including holidays.
On the 60th day, the appeal must have already been written and notified to both parties. All parties to the dispute must be advised of what the appeal will be and what the reasons are.
Notifications to appeal to the TAR
The parties involved must be notified of the appeal filed through a notification through a bailiff. Once the lawyer has prepared the appeal and submits it, this notification arrives to all interested people or to those who are opposing a certain ranking or for example to a public deed or who is also a counterpart and is therefore identified as a party which may present resistance to this appeal.
Generally, the competence of the TAR depends on the place where a specific act takes place or is published. In the case, for example, of the admission ranking, then we refer to the Lazio court, the one based in Rome.
Decisions concerning general topics are more extensive and are taken by this Administrative Court. They can be appealed in the second instance judgment, to the Council of State which is based in Rome, in the capital.
The two phases of the administrative appeal
Generally, the administrative appeal, both first and second instance, is always shared in two phases. There is the precautionary phase and the merit phase. The appeal to the TAR starts with the precautionary phase which is the first and the initial one.
The parties submitting an appeal can ask the court for a precautionary measure, or a suspension with respect to a specific order in order to block the effects of the act produced by the public administration. If this request is accepted by the Regional Administrative Court, then in fact it is possible to continue the action that the subject requires without the order going to block this activity. The merit phase, on the other hand, is the secondary and last phase in the appeal of the TAR.
In this phase, the judges can go to decide if the procedure has been done correctly and what is the path followed. Once verified whether everything has been done correctly or not, the appeal can be rejected or accepted depending on what the conclusions are. The judges of the administrative court are 3 gathered in a college formed by a president.
While, on the other hand, when you arrive before the Council of State which is the second instance, then you need to ask for the opinion of five judges because the college is so composed. The ruling of the Council of State is final and cannot be appealed.
The use of the Tar, times and costs
Another thing to consider are the times always for filing the appeal to fix the hearing. Generally there is talk of about 20 days after the filing of the appeal. Another important thing is that the sixty days from the publication of the public deed are respected.
Generally, to propose an appeal to the TAR, the average expenditure is about 4 thousand euros, however in case of economic difficulties it is possible to request legal aid for people who have an income of the household below 11 thousand and 500 Euros.
