Swiss Supreme Court Clarifies That The Deadline For Opposing An Unsealing Request Cannot Be Extended

In its ruling of 10 June 2025 (7B_1264/2024, 7B_1422/2024), relating to the unsealing of physical and electronic documents that were presumably covered by attorney-client privilege, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court provided important practical clarifications on a disputed issue.

According to Article 248a para. 3 of the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code, a provision that entered into force on 1st January 2024: "[t]he court shall grant the interested party a non-extendable deadline of 10 days to oppose the unsealing request and to indicate to what extent it wishes to maintain the seals. The lack of response is deemed a withdrawal of the sealing request".

The question whether the 10 days deadline mentioned above can be extended upon request was disputed amongst legal scholars – even though the relevant article explicitly states that it is non-extendable.