GERMANY Law and Practice Contributed by: Christian Strasser, Thomas Wambach and Yannick Greimann, HEUKING
As already described in 3.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Foreign Judgments , judgments from member states of the Lugano Convention must first be declared enforceable in Germany by a court order. This order is then enforced like any other order of a German court. The same applies, albeit on other legal grounds, to titles from the UK. Judgments from third countries must go through a thorough procedure to be recognised in Germany. This initially requires that the foreign judgment be translated. Then a court procedure – with an oral hear - ing – takes place, during which the prerequisites for recognition under Section 328 of the ZPO are exam - ined. 3.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Foreign Judgments The German enforcement authorities are used to the enforcement of titles from the EU or member states of the Lugano Convention, so that enforcement can be carried out in a timely manner and without com - plications. Enforcement of EU Titles In the case of EU titles, the creditor bears no costs for presenting the copy of the decision and the certifi - cate issued in the country of origin to the competent enforcement authority. The costs for the enforcement itself also apply to the enforcement of a German title. The enforcement of titles from the EU is thus not sub - ject to any additional costs, and only in very special cases might translations be required by a court. Titles from Lugano States For the enforcement of titles from states of the Luga - no Convention, a fixed fee is incurred by the court. In addition, only those costs are incurred that would arise in enforcing a German title. Therefore, they depend on the specific enforcement measure chosen by the creditor. UK Titles UK titles are handled by the bilateral Convention as of 1960 and the Law on Execution of the Convention. Court costs depend on the amount in dispute.
Other Titles For titles from third countries, considerable time and costs should be expected. For the recognition of such a title, an independent judicial proceeding in Germa - ny – ie, a proceeding after the original proceeding, is required. This will incur the typical lawyer’s fees as well as court costs. The latter are limited to a flat fee of EUR288. In addition, there are costs for translating the judgment and further documentation in a foreign lan - guage. Depending on the court addressed, the recog - nition procedure will usually require at least one year. 3.6 Challenging Enforcement of Foreign Judgments EU and Lugano titles have to be challenged in the country of origin. For other foreign titles, the follow - ing applies. • A provision on the recognition of foreign judgments is contained in Section 328 of the ZPO. • Section 328 stipulates the automatic recognition of such judgments unless one of the grounds for refusal listed in Section 328 is met. The ZPO does not provide for any further requirements for recognition beyond those listed in that section. In particular, the foreign judgment is not subject to any further substantive review; the prohibition of révision au fond applies. Pursuant to Section 328 of the ZPO, a foreign judg - ment cannot be recognised in Germany if: • the courts of origin did not have jurisdiction when hypothetically applying the German rules of the ZPO to determine the jurisdiction; • the defendant, who has not participated in the proceedings and relies on this fact, was not duly served with the document in time to initiate pro - ceedings to prepare a defence; • the judgment is incompatible with an earlier judg - ment rendered in Germany or with an earlier foreign judgment on which recognition is sought, or if the proceedings on which it is based are incompatible with proceedings pending in Germany; and • the recognition of the judgment leads to a result incompatible with the essential principles of Ger -
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