Guide · Uruguay
Procedural deadlines in Uruguay: how the CGP counts them
When a term runs in business days and when in calendar days, which day it starts on, which holidays and recesses stop it and at what moment it expires, with the norm cited and three computations worked out day by day.
Work out your deadline nowIt depends on how long the term is
Uruguay does not count every term the same way. Article 94 of the Código General del Proceso splits the count into three regimes according to the duration, and that is the first thing to check before counting a single day.
| Length of the term | Which days count | What stops it |
|---|---|---|
| Up to fifteen days | Business days only | Nothing: recesses and holidays are already non-business days |
| More than fifteen days | All of them, business and non-business | The judicial recesses and Tourism Week |
| Months or years | All of them, business and non-business | Nothing |
The article says it in three sentences: «Los plazos que se cuentan por días, sólo se suspenderán durante las ferias judiciales y la Semana de Turismo. Exceptúanse los plazos cuya duración no exceda de quince días y los que se cuentan por horas, en los cuales solamente se computarán los días hábiles. Para el cómputo de los plazos fijados en meses o en años, se contarán los días hábiles y los inhábiles.»
The consequence surprises anyone coming from another country: one article can set terms that are counted differently. Article 338.2 gives ten days to answer preliminary objections — business days, because they do not exceed fifteen — and thirty to answer a counterclaim — calendar days, because they do.
And distance adds nothing: in Uruguay a term does not grow with the distance between the party's address and the court, as it does under other codes in the region.
Which day it starts on
Article 93 of the CGP sets it: the term starts to run on the business day after the notification. Not simply the next day: if you are notified on a Friday, the first day of the term is Monday, and if that Monday is a holiday, Tuesday.
When the term is common to several parties, it runs from the business day after the last notification. Whether a term is common is decided by the law or by the nature of the act, not by the calendar.
And two rules that come with the start:
- The parties' terms are peremptory and cannot be extended, unless a provision says otherwise (article 92). The parties, by mutual and express agreement, can suspend their course.
- No term runs against a party prevented by just cause while the impediment lasts, and only force majeure or a fortuitous event counts as just cause (article 98). The term freezes; it does not start over.
Which days do not count
Article 96.1 of the CGP defines the business day by a fact: business days are the days on which court offices serve the public for at least four hours. That gives the three groups of days a term counted in business days skips.
Saturdays and Sundays
The offices are closed, so they are not business days. In a term of up to fifteen days they never count.
The holidays of Decreto Ley N° 14.977
1 and 6 January, the Monday and Tuesday of Carnival, the whole of Tourism Week, 1 May, 19 April, 18 May, 19 June, 18 July, 25 August, 12 October, 2 November and 25 December. 8 December is no longer on the list: the decree-law itself removed it.
Tourism Week is the sixth week after Carnival week, Monday to Sunday, and its dates change every year. In 2027 it runs from Monday 22 to Sunday 28 March, and Carnival falls on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 February.
The three holidays that move
Ley N° 16.805 moves three of those holidays — 19 April, 18 May and 12 October — according to the weekday they fall on: on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday they are kept that day; on a Tuesday or Wednesday, the previous Monday; on a Thursday or Friday, the following Monday. The others never move.
In 2027, 18 May and 12 October fall on a Tuesday: the non-business day is Monday 17 May and Monday 11 October, not the calendar date. Counting with the nominal date is the easiest mistake to make.
The two judicial recesses
Article 86 of Ley N° 15.750 sets two court recesses: the major one, from 25 December to the following 31 January, and the minor one, from 1 to 15 July. That is thirty-eight days in a row in summer and fifteen in winter.
When it expires
Article 95 of the CGP answers the two questions at the end of the count:
At what time the term dies
At the last business moment of the court office's opening hours on the day of expiry. Not at midnight: filings are lodged at the office and within its public opening hours (article 96.4).
What happens if that day is a non-business day
If the last day falls on a non-business day — a Sunday, a holiday, a recess day — the term is extended to the next business day.
The day of expiry counts: the term is not franco, so no extra day is added at the end.
Three computations worked out day by day
These are the three situations that move a date the most, with the same count the calculator makes.
Six business days with a holiday in the middle
A traslado under article 99 — six business days — notified on Tuesday 6 October 2026 starts to run on Wednesday 7. The 7th, 8th and 9th count; Saturday 10, Sunday 11 and Monday 12, the 12 October holiday, do not; then the 13th, 14th and 15th. It expires on Thursday 15 October 2026.
Thirty calendar days across the major recess
The answer to the claim under article 338.1 — thirty days, counted as calendar days — notified on Tuesday 15 December 2026 starts to run on Wednesday 16. From 16 to 24 December nine days run; from 25 December to 31 January the recess freezes the count for thirty-eight days; the remaining twenty-one days run from 1 February and the last one falls on Sunday 21. Under article 95, it expires on Monday 22 February 2027, not in mid-January.
With the same notification date, the preliminary objections of article 338.2 — ten business days — expire on Wednesday 3 February 2027: seven business days before the recess, the whole recess uncounted and the remaining three in February.
Three business days on the edge of the minor recess
A vista under article 99 — three business days — notified on Tuesday 30 June 2026 does not start on 1 July: the minor recess runs from 1 to 15 July, so the next business day is Thursday 16. The 16th and 17th count; Saturday 18, the 18 July holiday, and Sunday 19 do not. It expires on Monday 20 July 2026.
The terms the calculator carries
The deadline calculator for Uruguay has five CGP terms loaded, each with its article 94 regime already decided:
| Term | Article | Length | How it is counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traslado granted by the court | 99 | 6 days | Business days |
| Vista granted by the court | 99 | 3 days | Business days |
| Answer to the claim in ordinary proceedings | 338.1 | 30 days | Calendar days, suspended by the recesses and Tourism Week |
| Answer to the counterclaim | 338.2 | 30 days | Calendar days, suspended by the recesses and Tourism Week |
| Answer to preliminary objections | 338.2 | 10 days | Business days |
The six-day term of article 99 is the residual one: it applies to any traslado for which the Code sets no term of its own.
Each result carries the text of the article, the link to the official source on IMPO and the list of the days that were not counted, each with its reason: weekend, holiday, recess or suspension. With that you can redo the count without taking anyone's word for it.
Run the count with your own date
Pick the term, enter the notification date and the calculator tells you the day it expires, with the CGP article cited and every day it did not count named with its reason. Free, no account.
Open the deadline calculatorFrequently asked questions about deadlines in Uruguay
Are procedural deadlines in Uruguay counted in business days or calendar days?
It depends on how long they are. Under article 94 of the CGP, terms of up to fifteen days count business days only; terms of more than fifteen days count calendar days and are suspended during the judicial recesses and Tourism Week; terms set in months or years count business and non-business days alike.
On which day does a term start to run?
On the business day after the notification, says article 93 of the CGP. If the term is common to several parties, on the business day after the last notification.
Does the judicial recess suspend deadlines?
Yes. The two recesses of article 86 of Ley N° 15.750 — from 25 December to 31 January and from 1 to 15 July — freeze terms of more than fifteen days, and in terms of up to fifteen those days are not counted because they are non-business days. In practice, no term counted in days moves during a recess.
What happens if the term expires on a Saturday or a holiday?
It is extended to the next business day. Article 95 of the CGP says so, and it also sets the moment of expiry at the last business moment of the court office's opening hours.
Can the term be extended?
As a rule, no: article 92 of the CGP says the terms set for the parties are peremptory and cannot be extended, unless a provision says otherwise. What it does allow is for the parties, expressly and by mutual agreement, to suspend its course.
Is there a deadline calculator for Uruguay?
Yes. At custodio.legal/calculadora-de-plazos-uruguay you pick the CGP term, enter the notification date and see the expiry with the article cited and every non-business day named. It is free, asks for no account and is an indicative computation on a cited norm, not the firm's own computation.
Working out a deadline is the first step
Custodio reads the filing on the court portal, proposes the term with its norm and warns you before it expires, on every case file it watches.