Answering a large chorus of protests, led mostly by the Bar
Association, the Probation Legal Regime, approved by Law No.
23/2013 of 5 March, which regulates the distribution of inheritance
rights and matrimonial property since September 2013 — after
several inoperative versions, found its premature end.
Expected to be effective on the first day of 2020, Law No.
117/2019, published on Friday, September 13, restored the principal
probate jurisdiction to the Civil Courts, pushing Notaries to a
corner marginal position, with little more application than
consensual probation.
This huge change also reintroduces the special probation process
back to the Civil Code, while maintaining a parallel — and
again marginal — notarial probation regime in an autonomous
statute, through a legislative technique of doubtful clarity and
difficult access to the citizen.
