Introduction

Common provisions for proceedings with and without mandatory representation

Notice of appeal in cassation

Exchange of pleadings and documents

Proceedings with mandatory representation

Notice of appeal

Role of court clerk

Prerequisites

Review procedure

Judicial review in civil matters

Proceedings without mandatory representation

Concept of referral for opinion

Prerequisites for referral

Role of court seeking opinion of Court of Cassation

Role of the Court of Cassation

Procedure

Referral for opinion

Withdrawal

Recusal

Claim of forgery

Removal from the register

Cross-appeal (pourvoi incident)

Incidents

Concept of review (contrôle)

Extent of review

Grounds for appeal to the Court of Cassation

Review by Court of Cassation

Proceedings before the Court of Cassation

4. Proceedings before the Court of Cassation

Pursuant to Article 612 of the Code of Civil Procedure , the time limit for an appeal (pourvoi) to the Court of Cassation is two months from the duly served notification  of the contested decision, unless otherwise provided. However, regarding default judgments, it can only be filed by the defaulting party from the day their opposition is no longer admissible (Art. 613, CPC). Furthermore, accordin …

Notice of appeal to the Court of Cassation (déclaration de pourvoi)

Pursuant to Article 612 of the Code of Civil Procedure , the time limit for an appeal (pourvoi) to the Court of Cassation is two months from the duly served notification  of the contested decision, unless otherwise provided. However, regarding default judgments, it can only be filed by the defaulting party from the day their opposition is no longer admissible (Art. 613, CPC). Furthermore, according to Article 618, in the event of conflicting judgments, that is, when two decisions, even if not rendered as final, are irreconcilable and neither is subject to an ordinary remedy, the appeal to the Court of Cassation remains admissible after the expiration of the time limit provided in Article 612, even if one of the decisions has already been appealed and that appeal has been rejected. In this case, the appeal must be directed against both decisions.

Article 974 of the Code of Civil Procedure establishes the rule that “the appeal to the Court of Cassation is filed by notice of appeal at the registry of the Court of Cassation” . The notice must be signed by an attorney at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation (Art. 975, para. 3, CPC) . Furthermore, it must contain, on pain of invalidity:

- for individual appellants, the indication of their last name, first name, and domicile, and for corporate appellants, the indication of their form, name, and registered office, and for administrative or judicial authorities, the indication of their name and the place where they are established (Art. 975, para. 1, 1°, CPC) ;

- for respondents who are natural persons, the indication of their last name, first name, and domicile, and for respondents who are legal entities, the indication of their form, name, and registered office, and, concerning administrative or judicial authorities, the indication of their name and the place where they are established (Art. 975, para. 1, 2° CPC) ;

- the instruction of counsel to the Council of State and the Court of Cassation for the applicant (Art. 975, para. 1, 3°, CPC);

- the indication of the contested decision (Art., para. 1, 4°, CPC) .

The notice specifies, where applicable, the parts of the decision to which the appeal is limited (Art. 975, para. 2, CPC). According to Article 976 of the same code, it is submitted to the court registry in as many copies as there are respondents, plus two (para. 1), and the submission is recorded by noting its date and the clerk's endorsement on each copy, one of which is immediately returned (para. 2). Then, “the clerk immediately sends the respondent a copy of the declaration by ordinary mail, indicating that if they intend to defend against the appeal, they must appoint a lawyer at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation”   (Art. 977, para. 1, CPC).

Article 977, para. 2, specifies that “in the event of the return to the registry of the notification letter, the clerk of the Court of Cassation must immediately inform the applicant's lawyer in cassation so that the latter may proceed by way of service. The act of service informs the respondent that if they intend to defend against the appeal, they must instruct a lawyer at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation.”

The application for legal aid submitted with a view to appealing to the Court of Cassation, after a previous application was declared lapsed, does not interrupt the appeal period again, which began to run from the notification of the decision noting the lapse of the first application, see Cass. 2e civ., 16 February 2012, LawLex202400001372JBJ, adding that the appeal period is not reopened by the service by the court bailiff (now judicial commissioner), following the notification by the court registry.

In matters of proceedings without mandatory representation, See Cass. soc., 19 June 1986, LawLex202400003790JBJ: since the judgment served to the aforementioned parties, rendered after referral on the quashing of a judgment from the Labor Court and incorrectly classified as rendered in the first instance, also incorrectly states that the parties may appeal within one month of its notification, it follows that its notification could not trigger the time limit for an appeal to the Court of Cassation, the only remedy available to the parties, and consequently the appeal, although filed more than two months after this notification, is admissible; Cass. 1re civ., 23 November 2000, LawLex202300011174JBJ: when the notification of the contested judgment contains incorrect information regarding the form of the appeal, the time limit for appeal, which only starts from a proper notification, has not begun to run.

Cass. soc., 21 October 1993, LawLex202400002071JBJ: even if the regional director of health and social affairs is exempt from the requirement of counsel at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, no legal or regulatory provision allows them to file an appeal other than by a declaration submitted to the Court of Cassation's registry; Cass. 1re civ., 2 February 1999, LawLex202400001464JBJ: in a matter for which a special provision does not exempt all parties from the requirement of counsel at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, the Public Prosecutor, even if not personally required to appoint such counsel, must file their appeal by declaration at the Court of Cassation's registry; 10 January 2006, LawLex202400002027JBJ: by registered letter addressed to the Court of Cassation's registry, a lawyer at the Valence bar cannot declare an appeal to the Court of Cassation on behalf of their client against a judgment rendered by the Montpellier Court of Appeal, in labor matters, since it is a case where the parties are not, due to the repeal of Article R. 517-10 of the Labor Code, exempted by law from appointing counsel at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation.

Cass. 1re civ., 21 April 1982, LawLex202400002026JBJ: unless otherwise provided, the appeal to the Court of Cassation is filed by notice of appeal (déclaration de pourvoi)) at the registry of the Court of Cassation and signed by an attorney at the Court of Cassation; 17 January 1984, LawLex202400002023JBJ; Cass. 2e civ., 1 December 2016, LawLex202400001473JBJ; 5 January 2017, LawLex202400001370JBJ. Also see Cass. 2e civ., 7 November 1984, LawLex202400001465JBJ, specifying that the notice of appeal at the registry of the Court of Cassation, which was not signed by an attorney at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, when no legal provision exempts the decisions pronounced in such matters from the requirement of an attorney, results in the inadmissibility of the appeal; Cass. 1re civ., 21 January 1992, LawLex202400002025JBJ: no special provision exempts the parties from the requirement of an attorney at the Court of Cassation for appeals filed against decisions ruling on requests for release from a psychiatric institution, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms not prohibiting national legislations from imposing, in such cases, a form of representation; Cass. soc., 7 June 2001, LawLex202400001469JBJ: in social security matters, the appeal to the Court of Cassation is filed by botice of appeal at the registry of the Court of Cassation and signed by an attorney at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, notwithstanding the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms which does not prohibit national legislations from imposing the representation of parties before the Court of Cassation; Cass. 1re civ., 19 February 2014, LawLex202400001470JBJ: an attorney cannot file an appeal to the Court of Cassation by declaration at the registry of the Paris Court of Appeal, against a judgment of this court ruling on disputes concerning the election of the president of the bar (bâtonnier), the vice-bâtonnier, and the members of the bar council of Paris, when no provision exempts the parties from the requirement of an attorney at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation for appeals filed in this matter.

Cass. com., 12 February 1985, LawLex202400002081JBJ: the appeal is admissible as long as the error regarding the corporate form of a public limited company contained in the appeal document, purely material, was validly rectified by an act subsequent to the expiration date of the appeal period; Cass. 2e civ., 6 May 2004, LawLex202400002080JBJ: the omission by a legal entity to specify its full identity is a formal irregularity that does not affect the admissibility of the appeal, as long as it causes no harm; Cass. com., 15 June 2011, LawLex202400001778JBJ. The absence or inaccuracy of the mention regarding the domicile of the appellant in cassation required by Article 975 of the Code of Civil Procedure constitutes a formal irregularity that may lead to the invalidity of the notice of appeal if it is proven that this irregularity causes harm to the respondent, Cass. 2e civ., 7 June 2012, LawLex202400001770JBJ, specifying that the company which designates, in its notice of appeal, as its registered office, a building where it does not even have a mailbox, has committed a formal irregularity, which causes harm to the respondent, by hindering the enforcement of the contested judgment; 20 September 2019, LawLex202400001471JBJ; 13 January 2022, LawLex202400002139JBJ.- See also Cass. com., 23 October 2012, LawLex202400001779JBJ: an appeal to the Court of Cassation is admissible as long as the inaccuracy of the mention of a domicile at an address where the appellant no longer resides is due to a simple error and does not cause harm to the respondent who knows the address of the new domicile; Cass. 1re civ., 22 June 2016, LawLex202400001472JBJ: if it results from Article 975 of the Code of Civil Procedure that the notice of appeal must include, on pain of nullity, the indication of the domicile of the appellant in cassation, no text requires them to disclose their subsequent change of domicile.

Cass. 2e civ., 13 May 1985, LawLex202400002131JBJ: since the notice of appeal to the Court of Cassation does not indicate any respondent, the appeal, having only been served on the Attorney General who was not a party to the proceedings, is inadmissible; 8 June 1995, LawLex202400002129JBJ: under Article 975 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the notice of appeal is made by an act containing the name, first name, and domicile of the respondent, or, if it is a legal entity, its name and registered office, so that the notice of appeal filed with the Court of Cassation registry, which specifically names two respondents and “all other persons named or revealed by the contested decision, as well as, if applicable, their heirs,” does not meet the requirements of this text; Cass. 3e civ., 15 May 2002, LawLex202400001468JBJ: the notice of appeal filed with the Court of Cassation registry, which specifically names a company as respondent“and, if necessary, all other persons designated by the contested decision,” does not meet the requirements of Articles 975, 976, and 977 of the Code of Civil Procedure; Cass. 1re civ., 13 October 1999, LawLex202400002128JBJ: the appeal filed by a lawyer against the Bar Council, a first-degree disciplinary jurisdiction, which cannot, therefore, be a party to the proceedings, is inadmissible since it should have been directed against the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal and the generic expression referring to all persons named in the contested decision appearing in the notice of appeal does not meet the requirements of Articles 975 and following of the Code of Civil Procedure; Cass. 3e civ., 15 January 2003, LawLex202400001467JBJ; Cass. soc., 24 September 2013, LawLex202400001474JBJ: the company that is not named as a respondent in the notice of appeal must have the appeal declared inadmissible against it.

Cass. com., 21 November 1989, LawLex202400002135JBJ: the notice of appeal to the Court of Cassation that does not specify which decision is being challenged by the appeal renders it inadmissible.

Cass. 2e civ., 8 June 1995, LawLex202400002129JBJ.

4. Proceedings before the Court of Cassation

6. Notice of appeal to the Court of Cassation (déclaration de pourvoi)

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6. Notice of appeal to the Court of Cassation (déclaration de pourvoi)

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