LUXEMBOURG Law and Practice Contributed by: Fabio Trevisan and Laure-Hélène Gaicio-Fievez, BSP
3.6 Failure to Respond Where a defendant does not respond to a law- suit (ie, has not appointed a lawyer in civil mat- ters before a district court or does not attend the hearing in person where representation by a lawyer is not mandatory), there are two options: if the legal notice initiating the legal action was personally delivered to the defendant, the result- ing judgment will be considered adversarial; if not, the judgment will be deemed as default. 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions In Luxembourg, it is not currently possible to launch a class action. Nevertheless, several defendants with a common interest may bring a joint claim. This may change in the future as a bill of law is under discussion. 3.8 Requirements for Cost Estimate There are no requirements to provide clients with a cost estimate of the potential litigation at the outset. The Luxembourg New Code of Civil Procedure (NCPC) gives the judge sitting in summary pro- ceedings general powers to order, in urgent mat- ters, any interim measures to which there is no compelling objection or which are justified by the existence of a dispute (Article 932 al. 1 of the NCPC). This judge may also order any conservatory or remedial measures that are necessary either to prevent imminent damage or to put an end to a manifestly unlawful disturbance (Article 933 al. 1 of the NCPC). 4. Pre-trial Proceedings 4.1 Interim Applications/Motions
4.2 Early Judgment Applications A party may seek an interlocutory decision to address specific claims, arguments, or ques- tions before the court. Additionally, a party can raise procedural objec- tions concerning the case’s admissibility, such as a lack of precision in the application or an absence of legal interest to act. Should the judge uphold such objections, the case will be dismissed without any examination of its merits. Moreover, a case may be struck out if it is clear that it is no longer of interest to the parties or if the court believes that the parties are losing interest. This action can be initiated either by the court itself or upon the mutual request of the parties involved. 4.3 Dispositive Motions There are no dispositive motions that are com- monly made before trial. 4.4 Requirements for Interested Parties to Join a Lawsuit The procedural rules applicable in Luxembourg effectively provide for the possibility for a third
party to join an ongoing procedure. There are two types of interventions: • voluntary intervention; and • involuntary intervention.
In a voluntary intervention, an interested third party may seek admission to the proceedings either through lawyer-to-lawyer communication or via an oral statement within an oral procedure. Notably, there is no need for the act of a bailiff for this kind of intervention.
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