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

The legislator has established, in Articles 748-1 to 748-9 of the Code of Civil Procedure, general provisions relating to electronic disclosure, supplemented by specific provisions for each court.
By communication, Article 748-1 of the Code of Civil Procedure means “transmissions, deliveries, and notifications.” However, the legislator limits electronic communication in civil procedure to procedur …

Electronic communication

The legislator has established, in Articles 748-1 to 748-9 of the Code of Civil Procedure, general provisions relating to electronic disclosure, supplemented by specific provisions for each court.

By communication, Article 748-1 of the Code of Civil Procedure means “transmissions, deliveries, and notifications.” However, the legislator limits electronic communication in civil procedure to procedural documents, exhibits, notices, warnings or summonses, reports, minutes, and copies and extracts bearing the “enforceable formula” (i.e. writ of execution) of judicial decisions.

The use of electronic means is, pursuant to Article 748-2, subject to the recipient's consent, unless special provisions require the use of this mode of communication. The Court of Cassation thus considers that the participation by a legal assistant, assisting or representing a party, in an electronic communication network, such as the “virtual private network for lawyers” (RPVA), necessarily implies their consent to receive the notification of procedural documents electronically .

The technical processes used must ensure the reliability of the identification of the parties to the electronic communication, the integrity of the documents sent, the security and confidentiality of exchanges, the preservation of transmissions made, and allow for the certain establishment of the date of sending and the date of availability or receipt by the recipient. The identification carried out during electronic transmission is deemed, under Article 748-6, to be a signature for the application of the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure to the acts that the parties, the Public Prosecutor's Office, or the legal assistants assisting or representing the parties notify or deliver in the proceedings before the courts of first and second instance.

Dispatches, deliveries, and notifications must also be subject, according to Article 748-3, to an electronic acknowledgment of receipt sent by the recipient, indicating the date and, if applicable, the time thereof. When they are made through a dematerialized exchange platform between the court registry and the persons mentioned in Article 692-1, namely private legal entities, state administrations, local authorities, public administrative establishments, social security organizations, and other bodies responsible for managing an administrative public service, they must be subject to an electronic notice of availability, sent to the recipient at the address chosen by them, indicating the date and, if applicable, the time of availability, which serve as a visa, stamp, and signature or other acknowledgment of receipt affixed to the document or its copy when these formalities are provided for by the Code of Civil Procedure . A Court of Appeal cannot hold that the transmission by a party of its submissions as an attachment to an email titled “request for adjournment of hearing” does not constitute a valid notification, where an electronic acknowledgment of receipt mentioning the submissions among the attachments has indeed been generated following the message sent via the virtual private network for lawyers (RPVA) . Similarly, as long as it appears that an email has been sent from the RPVA and has been subject to an electronic acknowledgment of receipt mentioning the application among the attachments, the appellant must be considered as having electronically submitted to the court registry a regular application for review of the order of the pre-trial judge within the required time .

In the case of electronic communication, the transmission in multiple copies and the physical return of documents and exhibits submitted or served is not required.

The use of electronic means as a mode of communication does not exclude paper format. Indeed, Article 748-4 provides that when a document has been originally created on paper, the court may require its production. Article 748-5 adds that the use of electronic communication does not prevent the interested party from requesting the issuance, on paper, of the copy of the judicial decision bearing the enforceable formula.

Alongside Articles 748-1 to 748-6 of the Code of Civil Procedure, Decree No 2009-1524 of 9 December 2009  created Article 748-7 of the same code and incorporated the concept of “external cause” among the provisions common to all courts regarding electronic communication. Thus, when an act must be performed before the expiration of a deadline and cannot be transmitted electronically on the last day of the deadline, due to an external cause beyond the control of the person performing it, the deadline is extended to the next working day .

Finally, derogatory provisions to Articles 748-1 to 748-7 have been integrated by Decree No 2015-282 of 11 March 2015 , amended by Decree No 2019-402 of 3 May 2019 . First, Article 748-8 of the Code of Civil Procedure establishes the “Litigant's Portal” of the Ministry of Justice, which, according to paragraph 1 of Article 748-8, allows, when it is provided that a notice, summons, or receipt is sent by the court registry to a party by any means, by simple letter, by registered letter without acknowledgment of receipt, to send it electronically, with the prior consent of the recipient party. According to paragraph 2, the declaration by which a party consents to the use of this electronic means must provide their email address and mobile phone number, with the obligation to report any changes to them. Paragraph 3 specifies that the party is alerted to any new communication by a notice of availability sent to the email address indicated by them, specifying the date and, if applicable, the time of it. Finally, paragraph 4 provides that the technical methods used must ensure, under conditions set by order of the Minister of Justice, the reliability of the identification of the parties to the electronic communication, the integrity of the documents sent, the security and confidentiality of exchanges, the preservation of transmissions made, and allow the date of sending to be established with certainty.

Furthermore, under Article 748-9, when it is provided that a notice, a summons, or a receipt is sent by the court registry, by any means, by regular mail, by registered mail without acknowledgment of receipt, to private legal entities, state administrations, local authorities, public administrative establishments, social security organizations, and other organizations responsible for managing an administrative public service, it may be sent, if they have previously consented, by email under conditions ensuring the confidentiality of the transmitted information, with such consent being revocable at any time. The text specifies that the date of the summons sent under these conditions is, for the recipient, the first business day following its dispatch and is deemed to be served in person if an electronic acknowledgment of receipt is issued within this period and served at domicile otherwise.

Cass., avis, 9 September 2013, LawLex202300012834JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 7 September 2017, LawLex202300012831JBJ, illustrating notifications of the dispatch of judgments from Judicial Courts carried out electronically via the Virtual Private Network for Lawyers (Réseau privé virtuel avocats); Cass. 2e civ., 21 February 2019, LawLex202300012878JBJ, illustrating the electronic filing of submissions with the Court of Appeal registry.

Cass. 2e civ., 7 January 2016, LawLex202300012879JBJ; see also Cass. 2e civ., 2 July 2020, LawLex202300012830JBJ, a court of appeal is regularly seized of the submissions that one of the parties disclosed to it via the Virtual Private Network for Lawyers, as an attachment through an electronic message that was subject to an electronic acknowledgment of receipt.

Cass. 2e civ., 26 January 2017, LawLex202300012880JBJ; see also Cass. 2e civ., 16 May 2019, LawLex202300012833JBJ, considering regular the submission to the court of appeal registry of an application challenging an order of the pre-trial judge made by sending, via the Virtual Private Network for Lawyers, an email with an attached file containing this application, and whose receipt by the registry is confirmed by a notice automatically generated by the technical system of the justice messaging system; Cass. 2e civ., 9 September 2021, LawLex202200006953JBJ, illustrating the regularization of the lack of motivation of an appeal by filing with the registry, before the expiration of the appeal period, a new motivated notice of appeal or submissions containing the motivation of the appeal, addressed to the court of appeal and submitted via the Virtual Private Network for Lawyers.

Decree No 2009-1524 of 9 December 2009 on the appeal procedure with mandatory representation in civil matters, OJ of 11 December 2009.

Cass. 2e civ., 17 May 2018, LawLex202300002697JBJ.

Decree No 2015-282 of 11 March 2015 on the simplification of civil procedure, electronic communication, and amicable dispute resolution, OJ of 14 March 2015.

Decree No 2019-402 of 3 May 2019 on various measures relating to electronic communication in civil matters and the service of documents abroad, OJ of 4 May 2019.

1. Ordinary Law of Civil Procedure

291. Electronic communication

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291. Electronic communication

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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