Procedures
Written procedure before the tribunal judiciaire, with provisional enforcement by default
Civil claims go to the tribunal judiciaire, which absorbed the former tribunaux d'instance and de grande instance in 2020. Procedure is predominantly written and judge-managed, and since 2020 first-instance judgments are provisionally enforceable as a matter of course.
Key rules
- The tribunal judiciaire is the ordinary court of first instance; the tribunal de commerce hears commercial disputes between traders.
- Counsel is compulsory before the tribunal judiciaire above EUR 10,000, and always on appeal.
- The juge de la mise en état manages the pre-trial timetable and rules on procedural objections.
- Appeal must be lodged within one month of service of the judgment; a pourvoi to the Cour de cassation within two months.
- The ordinary limitation period for personal and movable-property claims is five years under article 2224 of the Code civil.
Governing law
- Code de procédure civile
- Code civil (art. 2224)Five-year ordinary limitation period
- Décret n° 2019-1333 (2019)Provisional enforcement by default from 1 January 2020
In practice
Two features surprise foreign litigants. There is no general pre-trial disclosure: each party produces the evidence it chooses, and a party wanting a document held by the other must ask the judge to order its production. And since 1 January 2020 provisional enforcement is the default rather than something to be requested, so a first-instance judgment can be enforced while the appeal is pending unless the court sets it aside — which changes the settlement calculus considerably. Service and enforcement are carried out by a commissaire de justice, the profession that absorbed the huissier de justice in July 2022. For smaller claims an attempt at mediation, conciliation or the procédure participative is a condition of admissibility.