EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohamed Osama, Hana Elbarbary and Hamza Shehata, Shehata & Partners
diplomatic means and in accordance with bilat- eral judicial co-operation treaties. 3.6 Failure to Respond If the defendant does not appear in the case and the statement of claim has been notified to the defendant in person, the court shall rule on the case. If the notice has not been notified to the defendant in person, the court shall adjourn the hearing of the case to a subsequent hearing to have the defendant re-notified, at which time the court shall rule on the case even in the absence of the defendant. Further, the judgment in this case shall be considered as a judgment that was issued in the legal presence of the defendant (Article 84 Procedural Code). 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions The provisions and texts of Egyptian law have failed to regulate this matter, except as referred to under Article 63 of the Procedural Code, which stipulates that the proceedings shall be brought before the court at the request of the plaintiff in a statement of claims deposited with the registry of the court. This article basically indicates that the plaintiff is a single individual/entity, except where the plaintiff’s legal status is indivisible or insepa- rable; in this case plaintiffs may legally be multi- ple, as long as their legal status is the same, and determining such will be within the discretionary powers of the court on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, it is not preferable to pursue such a course of action by filing collective proceedings because of the difficulty and lengthiness of the proceedings in this scenario, as there will usu- ally be situations where the form of the action will need to be amended or rectified to cater for a situation where one of the parties dies/ceases to exist.
However, in case of collective employees’ law- suits, where there is a collective labour agree- ment concluded between the employer and the employees, the employees will be eligible to file their case in a class action format (Article 164 of the Labour Code). The same applies to cases where employees collectively sue their employer for their profit share. In this case, the employees may file the suit collectively as long as they share the same legal position in the case (Article 41 of the Companies Law). 3.8 Requirements for Cost Estimate Neither the Procedural Code nor the EBL obliges a lawyer in Egypt to provide their client with a cost estimate for the case ahead of the litigation proceedings. A creditor may impose a provisional seizure on the movable assets of its debtor in each case where the creditor fears that its right will be lost and wishes to secure it. If the creditor did not acquire a writ of execution, or it had a court decision that is not enforceable yet or the debt was not specified, the provisional seizure will be ordered by the enforcement judge who will authorise the seizure and give a provisional estimate to the client’s debt. In these cases, the creditor must, within eight days, bring a case before the competent court in order to establish its right and the validity of the seizure. Other- wise, the seizure shall be considered as if it was never imposed (Articles 316, 319 and 320 of the Procedural Code). 4. Pre-trial Proceedings 4.1 Interim Applications/Motions If the case has already been brought before the competent court, the request to allow the seizure
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