As an appellate lawyer in a civil action, one does not wish to be any closer to “nunc pro tunc”—literally “now for then” in legal Latin—than reading this article. Nonetheless, the world is not perfect, and occasionally something happens that one wishes had not. This article examines situations in which an appellate party can seek nunc pro tunc, to fix something retroactively, and, conversely, when the problem is irretrievable.
Ordinarily, “in order to perfect an appeal, parties must strictly adhere to the statutory provisions for filing an appeal,” as in Criss v. Wise, 781 A.2d 1156, 1159 (Pa. 2001). A party seeking nunc pro tunc relief, of course, bears the burden of establishing its entitlement. A recent case, Bureau Veritas v. Department of Transportation, 127 A.3d 871 (Pa. Commw. 2015), illustrates successful invocation of nunc pro tunc relief despite such strictness.
