Are you sure that the deadline is based on calendar days, as opposed to working days in a civil case? Not that it makes much difference in the general scheme of how long this has been going on for.
Calendar days.
This extract from the European Judicial Network (Portugal) may help:
5. From when does this period begin to run:
5.a) When such a period is expressed in days, does the actual date of the act, of the event, of the decision or of the date of service and/or intimation which begins it count?
When such a period is expressed in days, the time limit begins to run from the day following the date of service, notification or the relevant event that sets it in train.
The actual date of the act, event, decision or date of service and/or intimation which begins it does not count.
5.a)1. Does the starting time for any time limit depend in any way on the receipt by or knowledge of the action by the recipient. If so how?
Yes. The answer given to question 4 also applies here.
5.b) When a time limit is expressed in days, does the indicated number of days include calendar days or only working days?
The procedural time limit laid down by law or established by court order is continuous. It is, however, suspended during judicial vacations, unless it lasts for six months or more or in the case of acts in proceedings statutorily classified as urgent. When the time limit for carrying out a procedural act ends on a day when the courts are closed, the period is extended to the next working day (Article 144 of the Code of Civil Procedure).
It follows that, except for the period of judicial vacations, the procedural time limit includes all calendar days although the act can be carried out on the next working day after the end of the period if it falls on a day when the court is closed.
Judicial vacations run from the 22 December to 3 January, from Palm Sunday to Easter Monday and from 1 to 31 August.
If, for example, in a proceeding a person has to react within 14 days to a document served on 4 April 2005, he or she must respond before 18 April. (unless Easter occurs within this period, when it may then be extended by 4 days).
