Late last year, after growing increasingly frustrated with the CCF’s uncharacteristically delayed responses to both access requests and removal requests, we inquired directly to the CCF as to the Commission’s seeming lack of compliance with Article 40(3) of the Statute on the CCF, which requires notification to the parties when the required deadlines are not met, and we asked about the possible reasons for the delays.
The CCF, to its credit, responded to our inquiry and provided some information that assists in gaining an understanding of the Commission’s workload situation as well as how response times might improve.
The CCF’s future practice regarding Article 40(3) is unclear
Our inquiry did not yield a substantive response as to the Commission’s practice of notifying parties regarding such delays. It is our observation that notification of a delay or its cause is not typically provided to INTERPOL applicants. We hope that notification of delays will be more routine in the future.
How INTERPOL attorneys are contributing to delays
However, the CCF was quite clear in explaining that a significant factor contributing to the increase in the time for decisions to be issued is that the some of removal requests it receives have become so lengthy that the duration of the consideration process is affected.
The Commission specified that not only do extensive removal requests contribute to the delays, but requests with a great number of exhibits or annexes also increase the needed review time.
Next steps
This firm is certainly one that has submitted lengthy removal requests and/or numerous exhibits when needed to fully explain a client’s case. There are times when it is difficult, if not impossible, to present the relevant evidence and arguments in a brief space. At the same time, one cannot both complain about delays and ignore their own contribution to those delays.
Going into 2025, the mantra of “less is more” may help to resolve the delay issue by assisting in bringing the Commission’s workload to a more manageable level.
As always, thoughts and comments are welcomed.