MONACO Law and Practice Contributed by: Stephan Pastor, Emeline Elbaz-Mondeux, Daniel Goldenbaum and Xavier Widawski, CMS Monaco
3.8 Requirements for Cost Estimate There are no legal requirements per se. How- ever, the provisions of contractual law on good faith and transparency regarding clients who must express informed consent require that, before contracting, the client be made aware (at minimum) of the conditions for billing and of an estimate for the overall costs, even if in litiga- tion matters it is more difficult to anticipate the opponent’s moves and the corresponding final costs for the client. Before the trial on the merits, it is possible to make prior applications – for instance, aiming to discover evidence (such as disclosure orders allowing the sending of a bailiff to retrieve evi- dence from third parties on condition of demon- strating legitimate interest) and to freeze assets. This leads to ex parte orders that are granted by the President of the First Instance Court within a few weeks. Once the trial has been initiated, one party can make an interim application with the court if an urgent matter arises that requires a pretrial deci- sion (after an adversarial debate), such as the granting of a provisional remedy in an emergen- cy or a sentencing to communicate a document under a daily fine. This leads to a judgment being rendered within several months. 4.2 Early Judgment Applications A party can ask for early judgment if it raised exceptions (such as a jurisdictional issue, nul- lity, time bar issue, inadmissibility) and if it wants the court to rule on these before any substantive hearing. 4. Pre-trial Proceedings 4.1 Interim Applications/Motions
If the court agrees, despite possible opposition from the other party, an early hearing on these exceptions and early judgment can be obtained. This judgment can end the procedure if it rules in favour of incompetence of the court, a nullity of the summons or a time bar. There is no written procedure for this – it is only customary. 4.3 Dispositive Motions Except as discussed in 4.2 Early Judgment Applications , the case continues until its con- clusion before the court. The parties exchange writing and exhibits back and forth; when the judge finds that the case is ready to be tried, they set the final hearing for the oral arguments of the parties. 4.4 Requirements for Interested Parties to Join a Lawsuit Interested parties may voluntarily join the pro- ceedings via written pleadings filed with the court and communicated to the parties. All parties may also call a third person to guar- antee their being in the proceedings, by way of a summons that is joined with the main case. 4.5 Applications for Security for Defendant’s Costs There is no such security for a defendant’s costs under Monegasque law. However, please note that, in divorce proceed- ings specifically, the parties can ask for provi- sional measures, such as an advance on legal costs from their opponent. Also, please note that in all cases the final deci- sion rendered (upon the parties’ requests) grants
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