Introduction

Role of the parties

Role of judge

Contentious matters

Concept

Powers of the judge

Principle of adversarial proceedings

Non-contentious matters

Underlying principles of civil proceedings

Right to bring civil action

Abuse of the right to bring proceedings

Type of action

Concept of action

Interest in bringing proceedings

Standing

Rules governing action

Legal action

Initial claim

Counterclaim

Additional claim

Intervention

Incidental claim

Interruption of limitation period

Application to file suit (demande en justice)

Defense on the merits

Procedural objections (exceptions de procédure)

Procedural bars to admissibility (fins de non-recevoir)

Defenses

Nature of claim

Amount of the claim

Jurisdiction ratione materiae

Principles

Exceptional territorial jurisdiction

Extension of jurisdiction

Territorial jurisdiction

Competent court

Formal requirements

Substantive requirements

Presentation of the QPC (Question prioritaire de constitutionnalité)

Referral to Court of Cassation

Referral to Constitutional Council

Referral of the QPC

Investigation procedure

Conduct of hearing

Decision of the Constitutional Council

Proceedings before Constitutional Council

Priority question of constitutionality (QPC)

Simplified case preparation procedure

Participative procedure for case preparation purposes

Extra-judicial case preparation

Recourse to technical expert

Agreements on extra-judicial case preparation (mise en état)

Disclosure of exhibits

Production of documents

Exhibits

Common provisions for investigations

Rules specific to each investigation

Investigative measures

Disputes concerning private deeds (actes sous seing privé)

Forgery procedure against authentic instruments

Challenges to documentary evidence

Oath sworn as decisive evidence

Oath tendered by way of supplementation

Judicial oath

Administration of evidence

Hearings

Deliberations

Judgment

Formation

Judgment after adversarial proceedings

Judgment by default or judgment after trial

Contentious or non-contentious judgment

Judgment on the merits or provisional ruling (avant dire droit)

Combined judgment

Provisional judgment

Judgment in fast track proceedings

Types

Joinder and severance of proceedings

Interruption of proceedings

Suspension of proceedings

Discontinuance of proceedings (extinction)

Procedural incidents

Plea of lack of jurisdiction

Recusal/Dismissal for legitimate suspicion

Challenging the judge's competence

General rules

Voluntary intervention

Compulsory intervention

Joinder in proceedings (intervention)

Existence of a judgment

Same subject matter, cause, and parties

Authority of res judicata

General conditions of enforcement

Provisional enforcement

Grace period

Enforcement of the judgment

Bearing of costs

Order to pay non-recoverable costs

Verification/Recovery

Claims/Disputes

Costs and expenses

Ordinary remedies

Extraordinary remedies

Remedies

Judgments

Calculation of time-limits

Acts of judicial commissioners

Service of documents

Ordinary notification

Notification between lawyers

International notification

Place of notification

Notification

Communication by electronic means

Procedural acts

1. Ordinary Law of Civil Procedure

Article 47, para. 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure allows the claimant to bring proceedings before a court located in an adjacent jurisdiction when a judge or an officer of the court (auxiliaire de justice) is a party to a dispute that falls under the jurisdiction of a court where they perform their duties. This provision applies to both judges of the judiciary governed by Ordinance No 58-1270 of …

Judge or officer of the court party to the dispute

Article 47, para. 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure allows the claimant to bring proceedings before a court located in an adjacent jurisdiction when a judge or an officer of the court (auxiliaire de justice) is a party to a dispute that falls under the jurisdiction of a court where they perform their duties. This provision applies to both judges of the judiciary governed by Ordinance No 58-1270 of 22 December 1958 , namely judges of the bench and the public prosecutor's office, as well as labor tribunal lay magistrates (conseillers prud’hommaux)  or lay judges of the Commercial Court (juges consulaires) . “Auxiliaire de justice” refers to “members of various professions who contribute to the administration of justice, either primarily by assisting the judge in their functions (...) or primarily by supporting the parties (...) by representing, assisting, or aiding them in various ways (...) and who are subject to various statutes (...)”. The contribution to the functioning of justice must be provided habitually. Therefore, an expert  or notaries who may occasionally perform expert or consulting missions before the courts in the jurisdiction where they practice, distinct from their main activity , are not considered legal assistants.

According to Article 47, para. 2, the defendant or any parties involved in the appeal may request a referral to a chosen court under the same conditions. Although the request for referral can be made at any stage of the proceedings, it must, under penalty of inadmissibility, be submitted as soon as the applicant becomes aware of the reason for referral . Thus, a lawyer registered with the Paris Bar cannot ignore that lawyers registered with the Bar of one of the Judicial Courts of Paris, Créteil, and Nanterre can perform, before each of these courts, the functions previously assigned to the office of solicitor, nor that, at the time he expressly requested to relocate the proceedings in question to Pontoise, he remained within the jurisdiction of a Court of Appeal where he could practice his profession as a lawyer and deliberately placed himself in the situation of appealing from a non-adjacent jurisdiction . The jurisdictional privilege of the lawyer allows him, when the court seized is the one in which he practices, to request the referral of the case to a court located in an adjacent jurisdiction, including concerning the duration of collective proceedings . The requirement of impartiality provided for by Article 6, paragraph 1, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, applies to courts against which the complaint can be invoked independently of the cases referred to in Article 47 of the Code of Civil Procedure and requires referring the case to an adjacent jurisdiction . However, the special procedure for resolving disputes between lawyers in the course of their professional practice is inherently exempt from the provisions of Article 47 of the Code of Civil Procedure .

Ordinance No 58-1270 of 22 December 1958 enacting the Institutional Act on the Status of the Judiciary, Official Gazette of 23 December 1958.

Cass. soc., 1 December 1988, LawLex202300004548JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 6 January 1988, LawLex202300000396JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 7 May 1980, LawLex202300000397JBJ.

Cass. soc., 3 June 1982, LawLex202300000398JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 7 April 2016, LawLex202200006483JBJ: a lawyer registered with the Paris Bar for many years is necessarily aware of this situation on the date he brought his challenge before the enforcement judge, so he is inadmissible to submit an application for referral of the pending procedure before the Paris Court of Appeal to a neighboring jurisdiction.

Cass. 2e civ., 12 April 2018, LawLex202200006486JBJ.

Cass. com., 2 October 2012, LawLex202100004387JBJ.

Cass. soc., 19 December 2018, LawLex202200006502JBJ, upholding a court of appeal, after dismissing the provisions of Article 47 of the Code of Civil Procedure on the grounds that the human resources manager of a company, signatory of the dismissal letter, was a labor court advisor and was not a party to the proceedings within the meaning of this text, decided, on the basis of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, that it was nevertheless appropriate to refer the case to a neighboring jurisdiction of the one territorially competent.

Cass. 1re civ., 27 February 2013, LawLex202300000399JBJ.

1. Ordinary Law of Civil Procedure

93. Judge or officer of the court party to the dispute

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93. Judge or officer of the court party to the dispute

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