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 684, para. 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by Decree No 2019-966 of 18 September 2019 , states that documents intended to be served on a person whose habitual residence is abroad must be delivered to the Public Prosecutor's Office, except in cases where a European regulation or an international treaty allows the judicial commissioner or the court registry to directly transmit …

Notification of documents abroad

Article 684, para. 1, of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by Decree No 2019-966 of 18 September 2019 , states that documents intended to be served on a person whose habitual residence is abroad must be delivered to the Public Prosecutor's Office, except in cases where a European regulation or an international treaty allows the judicial commissioner or the court registry to directly transmit this document to its recipient or to a competent authority of the destination State. The service made by the secretary of a court to a person residing abroad is done by delivering or transmitting the document of notification to the Public Prosecutor's Office, and thus, the notification of an expert report is tainted with irregularity if it was brought to the attention of the interested party solely by postal means . The Court of Cassation considers, however, that if a company has the option to summon another at its domicile in France, it is not deprived of the possibility of serving the summons to the Public Prosecutor's Office when the recipient party had its registered office abroad .

Article 684, para. 2, provides that the document intended to be served on a foreign state, a foreign diplomatic agent in France, or any other beneficiary of jurisdictional immunity, must be submitted to the Public Prosecutor's Office and transmitted through the Minister of Justice for service by diplomatic means, unless, under a European regulation or an international treaty, transmission can be made by another means. Para. 3 states that the Public Prosecutor's Office to which the submission must be made is, as the case may be, that of the court before which the application is brought, that of the court that has ruled, or that of the court within whose jurisdiction the applicant resides, and if there is no Public Prosecutor's Office near the court, the document is submitted to the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Judicial Court within whose jurisdiction that court is located. These provisions are prescribed, under Article 693, on pain of invalidity.

Articles 684-1 to 687 set out the procedures for this type of notification. Thus, according to Article 684-1, “the judicial commissioner or the court clerk records in the document the methods of its dispatch, transmission, or delivery.” Article 685 states that “the authority responsible for notification delivers two copies of the document to the Public Prosecutor, who endorses the original” (para. 1), with the Public Prosecutor promptly sending the copies of the document to the Minister of Justice for transmission or to the authority designated under the applicable European regulation or international treaty (para. 2). It includes an order from the judge prescribing the transmission of the document when the intervention of the judge is required by the recipient country. Furthermore, Article 686 provides that “unless the notification could be made by postal means, the authority responsible for notification must, on the same day or, at the latest, the next working day, send the recipient, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, a certified true copy of the document to be notified, clearly indicating that it is merely a copy.” Finally, under Article 687, “the Public Prosecutor informs the requesting authority of the steps taken and transmits, if applicable, any report or receipt recording the delivery of the copy of the document, to be annexed to the first original. If the notification was requested by a judicial commissioner, they keep these documents available to the court.”

Article 687-1 governs the situation where it appears from the information provided by the requested authority or postal services that the recipient does not reside at the address stated, having no known domicile or residence. According to this text, “the judicial commissioner records in the document the information thus provided and proceeds with service as stated in paragraphs 2 to 4 of Article 659.” In other words, on the same day or, at the latest, the first working day thereafter, under penalty of invalidity, he sends the recipient, at the last known address, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, a copy of the report detailing the efforts he made to locate the recipient of the document, to which is attached a copy of the document subject to service, and, on the same day, he informs the recipient, by regular mail, of the completion of this formality.

Decree No 2019-402 of 3 May 2019 inserted Article 687-2 into the Code of Civil Procedure , according to which the date of notification of a judicial or extrajudicial act abroad is, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 687-1, for the person to whom it is made, the date on which the act is delivered or validly notified. It also provides that when the act could not be delivered or notified to its recipient, the notification is deemed to have been made on the date when the competent foreign authority or the French consular or diplomatic representative attempted to deliver or notify the act, or when this date is not known, the date on which one of these authorities informed the requesting French authority of the impossibility of notifying the act. Furthermore, when no certificate describing the execution of the request could be obtained from the competent foreign authorities, notwithstanding the steps taken with them, the notification is deemed to have been made on the date the act was sent to them. Before the adoption of this text, the Court of Cassation stated that the date on which the decision to be served by diplomatic means was delivered to the public prosecutor's office did not constitute the starting point of the period for appealing this decision . It also held that for parties domiciled abroad, the two-month appeal period, extended by two months, ran from the day of the regular delivery to the public prosecutor's office, and not from the date of delivery to the parties of a copy of the act by the foreign authorities, except in cases where a Community regulation or an international treaty authorized the judicial commissioner or the court registry to directly transmit this act to its recipient or to a competent authority of the State of destination .

Finally, under the terms of Article 688, the court is seized of the application made by writ of summons through the delivery to it of the document completed with the information provided for in Article 684-1 or, as the case may be, in Article 687-1, possibly accompanied by proof of the steps taken to notify the recipient. In the event that it is not established that the recipient of a document was made aware of it in due time, the judge's powers are limited since he can only rule if the document has been transmitted according to the methods provided by the European regulations or applicable international treaties or, failing these, according to the provisions of Articles 684 to 687, that at least six months have elapsed since the document was sent, and that no proof of delivery of the document could be obtained, notwithstanding the steps taken with the competent authorities of the State where the document is to be delivered. However, he may ex officio prescribe any additional steps, including issuing a letter rogatory to any competent authority, to ensure that the recipient has been made aware of the document and informed of the consequences of any inaction on their part, or immediately order the necessary interim or protective measures to safeguard the applicant's rights.

Decree No 2019-966 of 18 September 2019 on the substitution of the Judicial Court for the Regional Court and the District Court pursuant to Article 95 of Law No 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming and reform for justice and various provisions relating to judicial organization and amending the annex of Decree No 2019-913 of 30 August 2019 issued pursuant to Article 95 of Law No 2019-222 of 23 March 2019 on the 2018-2022 programming and reform for justice, JO of 19 September 2019.

Cass. civ. 2e, 18 November 2003, LawLex202300012746JBJ; 8 July 2010, LawLex202300012745JB.

Cass. civ. 2e, 30 March 2000, LawLex200500008965JBJ.

Decree No 2019-402 of 3 May 2019, on various measures relating to electronic communication in civil matters and the notification of documents abroad, JO 0104 of 4 May 2019, Art. 7.

Cass. civ. 2e, 2 June 2016, LawLex202300012786JBJ; 30 January 2020, LawLex202300012788JBJ.

Cass. 1re civ., 10 October 2018, LawLex202300012785JBJ.

1. Ordinary Law of Civil Procedure

288. Notification of documents abroad

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288. Notification of documents abroad

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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