menetlusaeg

Menetlusaeg is the duration of a legal or administrative procedure, from its initiation to its final resolution or termination. The term is used across civil, administrative, and criminal proceedings, as well as in the handling of administrative services and public procurement. It describes how long a procedure takes to proceed from start to end, rather than a fixed action date.

The length of the menetlusaeg is determined by the applicable procedural laws and by practical factors. These include the complexity of the case, the number of parties involved, the availability of evidence, and whether the process is paused or extended by a court, an authority, or the parties themselves. Some steps within a procedure may be governed by statutory time limits (tähtaeg); in practice, the overall menetlusaeg may be longer if extensions are granted, additional information is requested, or expert opinions are sought.

In public-service contexts, authorities may publish estimates or targets for processing times to inform applicants about how long a service is expected to take. The concept also plays a role in governance and transparency measures, where average or median processing times are reported to assess efficiency.

Differences from tähtaeg: while tähtaeg is a fixed deadline by which a specific action must occur, menetlusaeg refers to the actual span of the whole process, which can be influenced by suspensions, suspensions, and extensions. The term is commonly used in legal texts, administrative practice, and public administration to describe and analyze the efficiency of procedures. See also tähtaeg, viivitus, and menetlus.