MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Adrián Magallanes, Diego Sierra and Rodrigo Barradas Muñiz, Von Wobeser y Sierra, SC
6.6 Third Parties and Injunctive Relief In principle, injunctive relief is only granted against the parties to the dispute. However, in some cases the court can order third parties to co-operate – for example, it can order a bank to freeze banking accounts or order a debtor of the respondent not to pay the respondent and instead deposit the money before the court. 6.7 Consequences of a Respondent’s Non-compliance If the respondent fails to comply with the terms of an injunction, the court may impose differ- ent sanctions, which can range from a fine to administrative detention for contempt of court. Ultimately, the defiance of a court order may constitute the crime of judicial disobedience. In practice, there are no jury trials in Mexico; they are all bench trials. An oral trial proceeding in Mexico has four stages: • the pleadings stage; • the preliminary hearing; To start an ordinary oral commercial action, and the pleadings stage, the claimant must file a complaint before the court, along with all the relevant documents and the names of any wit- nesses the plaintiff intends to call. Once the complaint is admitted, the defendant is served with process and has nine business days to file an answer and a counterclaim. The defendant must also submit all the documents to prove their defences and indicate the names of any witnesses they intend to call. The plaintiff then 7. Trials and Hearings 7.1 Trial Proceedings • the trial hearing; and • the final judgment.
has three business days to respond, or nine days if a counterclaim was filed. After the pleadings stage, the court shall appoint a date for the preliminary hearing, which is an oral hearing with the following purposes: • the management of the proceeding; • conciliation or mediation; • the establishment of agreements on undis- puted facts; • the establishment of probatory agreements; • the qualification of the admissibility or not of the evidence; and • the citation for the trial hearing. In addition, the judge, among other things, shall hear the procedural defences, receive evidence on such regards and rule on them (except for matters of lack of jurisdiction). In the trial hearing, the court will process the evidence and then grant the floor to each of the parties to make their arguments. The court shall then enter its decision, briefly explaining orally the factual and legal grounds of the decision and the specific rulings. These rules shall vary regarding special or sum- mary proceedings. 7.2 Case Management Hearings In the preliminary hearing, the judge, among other things, shall hear the procedural defenc- es, receive evidence on such regards and rule on them (except for matters of lack of jurisdic- tion). The preliminary hearing works similarly to a case management hearing (see 7.1 Trial Pro- ceedings ). In commercial matters, it should be remembered that parties can freely agree the proceedings
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