EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohamed Osama, Hana Elbarbary and Hamza Shehata, Shehata & Partners
sessions or the time for each session. It should also be noted that in practice, these timeframes are not adhered to, as failure to adhere to them does not result in any penalty in any event.
• a party can request that a third party produc- es a document in its custody if the conditions mentioned under 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases , are met; and • a party can request the appearance of third parties such as witnesses and experts. 5.3 Discovery in This Jurisdiction Please refer to 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases . 5.4 Alternatives to Discovery Mechanisms Please refer to 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases . 5.5 Legal Privilege The EBL states that the lawyer must retain the information that their client discloses to them, unless the client asks the lawyer to use it to defend the client’s interest. 5.6 Rules Disallowing Disclosure of a Document Please refer to 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases . 6. Injunctive Relief 6.1 Circumstances of Injunctive Relief The most common form of injunctive relief in Egypt would be a provisional seizure of assets. This type of seizure allows for the freezing of the assets of the debtor, for example. In this regard, there are two types of provisional seizure under Egyptian law as follows: • provisional seizure vis-à-vis the debtor; and • provisional seizure vis-à-vis a third party. Further, in the following three events, the creditor would need first to submit an application for a provisional seizure to the judge (which is an ex parte application) and then the creditor would
5. Discovery 5.1 Discovery and Civil Cases
The Egyptian Law does not have a concept equivalent to that of discovery in common law countries. In this regard, each party submits what they deem to be supporting their claims and they are not obliged to produce any docu- ments in their custody to the counterparty unless certain conditions are met cumulatively as fol- lows: • the document is material to the case; • the law permits the production of such a document; • the document is a common document between the parties (such as contracts between the parties); and • the document was relied upon by the coun- terparty during any stage of the proceedings. Further, the applicant must describe the con- tents of such requested document and the rea- soning behind requesting it. In this regard, the judge has full discretionary powers to decide on It is possible to obtain facts from a third party other than the claimant or the respondent in the following circumstances: • a party can request the joining of a third party to the case as long as such a third party could have been a party to the case at the time of initiating the lawsuit; the production of such documents. 5.2 Discovery and Third Parties
392 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook