FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Thierry Marembert, Cécile Labarbe and Céline Serpagli, Kiejman & Marembert
4. Pre-Trial Proceedings 4.1 Interim Applications/Motions
end without review of the merits, including exceptions de procédure such as lack of jurisdiction or fin de non- recevoir such as statutes of limitations or the absence of legal interest in bringing proceedings. Exceptions de procédure must be raised at the same time and in limine litis, before any substantive defence on the merits or fin de non-recevoir . 4.4 Requirements for Interested Parties to Join a Lawsuit Interested parties not named as a claimant/plaintiff or defendant may join a lawsuit through a voluntary action ( intervention volontaire ). These interested par- ties may either bring claims of their own or support another party’s claim or position. The intervention is admissible if the party has a legitimate interest and proves the existence of sufficient connections with the original claim. 4.5 Applications for Security for Defendant’s Costs Before tribunaux judiciaires , the pre-trial judge may in some instances order a party to pay a sum of mon- ey as security for the other party’s legal costs. For instance, the family court can issue an interim order so that a spouse pays a sum to help the other spouse pay legal fees. However, the French Supreme Court has ruled that the party asking for a provision for costs must prove that the obligation is not seriously disput- able on its merits. 4.6 Costs of Interim Applications/Motions When an early judgment is issued on a procedural issue, the pre-trial judge often orders the losing party to pay a certain amount for legal fees. If an expert is appointed, the judge generally orders the parties to Since a July 2025 reform, conventional pre-trial man- agement ( instruction conventionnelle ) has become the rule in civil proceedings, while judicial pre-trial man- agement is now the exception. The parties may manage the pre-trial phase through a procedural agreement, filed with the court, which allows them to jointly organise the progress of the pay a provision for the expert’s fees. 4.7 Application/Motion Timeframe
During the phase where parties exchange writings and before the final hearing takes place, it is possible to make an interim application by seizing the judge in charge of monitoring the cases. Before tribunaux judi- ciaires , for instance, a pre-trial judge ( juge de la mise en état ) has exclusive jurisdiction to rule on interim applications for case management issues and interim remedies. The judge delivers rulings called jugements avant dire droit (judgments before stating law), which do not take the matter out of the judge’s hands nor have the force of res judicata on the merits of the proceedings. There are two types. • Pre-trial rulings handle temporary situations during the proceedings, such as: (a) obtaining the sequestration of a property until the outcome; (b) setting visiting rights and custody during di- vorce proceedings; or (c) ordering the payment of a provision to the creditor when the existence of the obligation is not seriously disputable. • Pre-trial rulings order any preparatory inquiries or investigative measures, such as: (a) an order for a party or a third party to provide certain documents requested by the other party (the pre-trial judge has full discretion to assess whether such a document is necessary for the resolution of the dispute); or (b) technical expertise or a civil investigation (including witness hearings, which are rare in practice). 4.2 Early Judgment Applications In case of urgency, the fixed-date procedure ( à jour fixe ) enables a claimant, authorised by the president of the court, to summon his or her adversary to appear before the court on a specific date, usually in the near future, to obtain an early judgment on the merits. 4.3 Dispositive Motions The pre-trial judge has exclusive jurisdiction over pro- cedural motions that are likely to bring the case to an
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