Practice question
The court receives an initiatory pleading but no proof of payment of the requisite fees. Counsel invokes Rule14 §1 to demand that the five-calendar-day direction period be measured solely from receipt of the pleading, regardless of the missing payment proof. Which is the sound reading of that provision?
- The provision expressly refers to receipt of both the initiatory pleading and proof of payment; counsel's reading omits a stated trigger.
- The five days always run from the date counsel privately signs the complaint.
- Issuance must await a final merits judgment.
- The defendant alone decides when the period begins.
- Payment proof may never be required for any civil process.
Legal references
- https://lawphil.net/courts/rules/am_19-10-20-sc_2019.html — AM19-10-20-SC, 2019 amendments, Rule14 §§1–5,13,20–23.
- https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/11/99055 — AM19-10-20-SC, November26 2024, Rule13-A (express summons exception).
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