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

Under the terms of Article 53 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the initial claim is the one by which a litigant initiates proceedings by submitting their claims to the court . This initiates the proceedings. According to the Court of Cassation, the proceedings commence with the referral to the court that is called upon to resolve the disputed issue submitted to it and end when this court has exhaus …

Under the terms of Article 53 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the initial claim is the one by which a litigant initiates proceedings by submitting their claims to the court . This initiates the proceedings. According to the Court of Cassation, the proceedings commence with the referral to the court that is called upon to resolve the disputed issue submitted to it and end when this court has exhausted its jurisdiction . It has the effect of imposing procedural burdens on the parties in order to bring the competent court into play.

In contentious matters, the claim is initiated by writ of summons (assignation) or by application/motion (requête), submitted or sent to the court registry . The application may be unilateral or jointly made by the parties (Art. 54, para. 1, CPC). Article 54, paragraph 2, as amended by Decree No 2020-1452 of 27 November 2020 , lists the mandatory information that the initial application must contain, on pain of invalidity:

- the indication of the court before which the application is brought (Art. 54, para. 2, 1°, CPC);
- the subject of the application (Art. 54, para. 2, 2°, CPC);
- for natural persons, the surname, first names, profession, domicile, nationality, date, and place of birth of each applicant (Art. 54, para. 2, 3°, a, CPC);
- for legal entities, their form, name, registered office, and the body that legally represents them (Art. 54, para. 2, 3°, b, CPC);
- where applicable, the information relating to the designation of real estate required for publication in the property register (Art. 54, para. 2, 4°, CPC).

When it must be preceded by an attempt at conciliation, mediation, or participatory procedure, the application must also specify the steps taken towards an amicable resolution of the dispute or the justification for the exemption from such an attempt (Art. 54, para. 2, 5°, CPC).

When the application is made by writ of summons , by a “judicial commissioner's act by which the applicant summons their opponent to appear before the judge” (Art. 55 CPC), in addition to the information prescribed for acts of the judicial commissioner and those stated in Article 54, it contains on pain of invalidity:
- the place, day, and time of the hearing at which the case will be called;
- a statement of the factual and legal grounds , the list of documents on which the application is based in a schedule annexed to it;
- the indication of the modalities of appearance before the court and the clarification that, failing the defendant's appearance, they risk a judgment being rendered against them based solely on the elements provided by their opponent (Art. 56, para. 1, CPC) ;
- where applicable, the designated chamber (Art. 56, para. 2, CPC).

When the claim is made by motion (requête), it may be presented solely by the claimant who refers the matter to the court without their opponent having been previously informed (Art. 57, para. 1, CPC). The motion may also be submitted or sent jointly by the parties, who present their respective claims to the judge, the points on which they disagree, as well as their respective grounds (Art. 57, para. 1, CPC). In addition to the information in Article 54, the motion made by a single party contains, on pain of invalidity, the indication of the surname, first names, and domicile of the person against whom the application is made or, if it is a legal entity, its name and registered office, and, in all cases, the indication of the documents on which the application is based (Art. 57, para. 2, CPC). Whether unilateral or joint, the motion must be dated and signed (Art. 57, para. 3, CPC). Finally, Article 58 provides that the parties may, in the joint motion, entrust the judge with the mission to rule as an amiable compositeur or bind them by the classifications and points of law to which they intend to limit the debate if this option is open to them by Article 12 and if they have not already done so since the dispute arose.

It is incumbent upon the defendant to disclose, if a natural person, his or her surname, first names, profession, domicile, nationality, date, and place of birth, and if a legal entity, its form, name, registered office, and the body that represents it; failing which, he or she may be declared, even ex officio, inadmissible in their defense (Art. 59 CPC).

In non-contentious matters, the application is made by motion (Art. 60 CPC), the court being seized by the submission of the application (motion) to the court registry (Art. 61 CPC).

Cass. soc., 10 July 1996, No 93-40.392, LawLex202200010484JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ., 4 November 1987, LawLex202200010311JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ., 23 June 1993, LawLex202200010315JBJ; Cass. 3e civ., 10 December 1985, No 84-16.799, LawLex202200010314JBJ; Cass. com., 18 December 1984, LawLex202300002405JBJ, which specifies that, in the absence of filing the writ of summons with the court registry, the court is not seized nor is the proceeding initiated.

Decree 2020-1452 of 27 November 2020 on various provisions relating in particular to civil procedure and the procedure for compensating victims of acts of terrorism and other offenses, JO 28 November 2020. In accordance with Article 12, the provisions came into force on 1 January 2021 and apply to proceedings ongoing on that date.

Cass. 2e civ., 29 February 1984, No 82-12.259, LawLex202200010313JBJ; Cass. 3e civ., 10 December 1985, LawLex202200010314JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 22 October 2020, No 19-15.316, LawLex202200006959JBJ; Cass. 2e civ., 13 November 2014, No 13-15.642, LawLex202200010629JBJ; Cass. 3e civ., 26 May 1992, No 90-17.982, LawLex202200006841JBJ, which specify that the writ of summons must contain the subject of the claim with a statement of the factual and legal grounds.

Cass. 2e civ., 3 April 2003, No 00-22.066, LawLex202200006620JBJ, which highlights that since the writ of summons specified that failure to appear would expose the opposing party to a judgment by default, the latter cannot claim a lack of disclosure resulting from their failure to appear.

1. Ordinary Law of Civil Procedure

58. Initial claim

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

58. Initial claim

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