The penal order is a strange genre. It is a judgment, but without a courtroom, without witnesses and without you. The judge wrote it at their desk based on what the police and the public prosecutor sent them. Your version of the story is either not in that file at all, or was written down by someone else's hand.
If you disagree with it, you have exactly one weapon and exactly one week to use it.
The 8-day deadline
The objection (odpor) is filed within 8 days of delivery, and it is filed with the court that issued the penal order. Not with the public prosecutor, not with the police; an objection sent elsewhere counts only from the day it reaches the right court, and that is usually too late. A penal order is delivered to you personally and the deadline runs from the day you receive it. All days count, Saturday and Sunday included. A missed deadline practically cannot be recovered; the court does not care that you were in the mountains, and the Constitutional Court turned away even a complainant who had merely misread the court's address and sent her objection to the neighbouring district.
What happens after the objection
- The penal order is cancelled as if it had never existed. The court schedules a main trial.
- At the main trial the court hears you, takes evidence and decides afresh.
- The result may be better, the same, but also worse. The objection is not a magic word, it is a strategic decision. That is why it makes sense to make it with someone who knows the file and knows what is in it and what is missing.
Send it to us
A photo of the penal order and the date you received it is enough. You will learn what it means, what you are facing and whether an objection makes sense. And if there are three days left, you will learn it quickly.
What this rests on
No advice on this page is an opinion. Each one has a section of the law and a court decision behind it. Click through, the full text is on Europaius.
Statute
- § 314g tr. řáduobjection within eight days of delivery, filed with the court that issued the penal order; filing it cancels the order
- § 314e tr. řáduwhat a penal order may impose and when a single judge may issue one
Case law
- III. ÚS 2869/18 (Ústavní soud, 28. 5. 2019)an objection filed after the eight-day deadline with the wrong court because the instructions were misread: no main trial took place
- 4 Tdo 1395/2015 (Nejvyšší soud, 16. 12. 2015)an objection sent to the public prosecutor reached the court only after the deadline; the dispute over its timeliness went all the way to the Supreme Court
- 8 Tdo 101/2020 (Nejvyšší soud, 29. 1. 2020)a court's notice that the penal order became final after a late objection can no longer be challenged by an extraordinary appeal
Related cases
- Odpor poslala včas. Jen na špatný soud. 2019 (in Czech)
Related articles
- Výpis z trestního rejstříku: co v něm je, jak ho získat a kdy z něj záznam zmizí (in Czech)
- Podmíněný trest: co znamená „dostat podmínku“ a co se stane, když ji porušíte (in Czech)
- Odvolání v trestním řízení: 8 dní, správný soud a co se dá rozsudkem ještě změnit (in Czech)
A different situation?
- You or someone close to you has been detained
- Pre-trial detention is looming, or someone is already in it
- A police summons has arrived
- Criminal complaint: you want to file one, or one has been filed against you
- You have been charged with a criminal offence
- Alcohol or drugs behind the wheel, driving ban
- Plea agreement, conditional discontinuation
- House search
- You have become the victim of a crime
- European arrest warrant, extradition abroad
- Charged with embezzlement
- Disorderly conduct: a brawl, a pub, the street
- Dangerous threats and stalking
- You drove while banned from driving
- Charged with bodily harm
- Damage to property
- Violation of the inviolability of the home
- Defamation
- Conditional release from prison
- Negligent homicide: a fatal accident
- Credit fraud and subsidy fraud