PHILIPPINES Law and Practice Contributed by: Leland R Villadolid Jr, Gilberto D Gallos, Antonio Jose Gerardo T Paz and Leo Frederick Z Cruz, Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz
may pay a minimal monthly retainer fee, or pay for the costs of litigation while the case is pend- ing, and the majority or the entire legal fees are paid (or not) upon the final resolution of the case or when an acceptable settlement is reached. The legal fees may be payable in cash or, in many cases, real property or a portion thereof. The legal fees may be a percentage of the judg- ment award, or the amount received by the client in the case of a settlement. 2.7 Time Limit for Obtaining Third-Party Funding Please see 2.1 Third-Party Litigation Funding . Private agreements between the parties pre- scribing certain preconditions (including referral to arbitration, mediation or any mode of alter - native dispute resolution) to litigation are legally binding. Failure to comply with such a precondi- tion renders the case dismissible on the ground that a condition precedent for filing the claim has not been complied with. The Katarungang Pambarangay Law stipulates that private civil disputes and minor crimes involving residents of the same city or munici- pality must first undergo mandatory mediation at the barangay level before a case may be filed before the courts. The Civil Code of the Philip- pines also requires members of the same family to exert earnest efforts towards a compromise before filing an action against each other. 3. Initiating a Lawsuit 3.1 Rules on Pre-action Conduct The Philippines also adheres to the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies, which mandates that disputes falling within the juris-
diction of administrative or quasi-judicial agen- cies must first be raised before the proper gov- ernment agency prior to filing a complaint with the courts. 3.2 Statutes of Limitations The prescriptive periods for initiating particular civil actions are mostly found in the Civil Code. The prescriptive period for filing civil cases rang- es from one to 30 years depending on the nature of the action. In general: • civil actions for personal injury claims, real property damage claims and torts prescribe four years; • actions for breach of written contracts, enforcement of statutory obligations and judi- cial decisions prescribe ten years; • actions based on oral contracts or quasi- contracts prescribe six years; • summary actions for recovery of possession of real property prescribe one year; • actions to recover movable property pre- scribe eight years; and • actions to enforce real rights over immovable property prescribe 30 years. All other actions whose periods are not fixed in the Civil Code or in other laws must be brought within five years from the time the right of action accrues. 3.3 Jurisdictional Requirements for a Defendant The general rule is that a court acquires juris- diction over the person of the defendant in civil cases by service of summons. However, even without valid service of summons, a court may still acquire jurisdiction over the person of the defendant if the latter voluntarily appears before it. A defendant is deemed to have voluntarily
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