French cases : researching docket sheets and full text

Many Anglo-Saxon law librarian colleagues contact me regarding docket and full text research of French cases, asking whether it is possible to accomplish this online and if not, how to proceed [1]. So one really had better have the court’s name before starting the research.

Docket sheets

I don’t think French court docket sheets are accessible online to a third party. Only for some jurisdictions and only if you are a party in the litigation or his/her attorney and you have an e-certificate and it is installed on your computer.

To my knowledge (some details may be partially untrue), access to French "dockets" online is rather limited and, often, somewhat complicated on the technical side :

• judiciary jurisdictions :
  • Cour de cassation : accessible only by the specialized attorneys "au Conseil (et à la Cour)"
  • courts of appeal ("cours d’appel") and first instance tribunals ("tribunal de grande instance" (TGI), "tribunal judiciaire" (TJ), ...) : accessible only by the attorneys of the parties through the eBarreau/RPVA electronic network
  • Tribunal de commerce (Tcom) de Paris : dockets are accessible online, but only by the parties and their attorney and only through a subscription. See L’abonnement au site judiciaire du greffe pour les avocats on the Tcom’s web site
• administrative jurisdictions : at all levels (1st level ("tribunal administratif", TA), 2nd level ("cour administrative d’appel", CAA) and the supreme court ("Conseil d’Etat", CE)) dockets are accessible online through Télérecours/Sagace, but only by the parties and their attorney.

Remember that the main information you may get as a third party is whether the judgment has been appealed. Even that information is harder and harder to get from "greffiers", who are permanently under fire.

To know more, you may read the post in my blog (in French) : Informatisation de la procédure auprès des juridictions : un point et une bibliographie — Un épisode de notre série "L’e-administration avance (lentement)".

Docket documents

If you are the attorney of one of the parties to a litigation before a French court, you have access to all procedure documents in paper format (and they are generally transmitted to you by mail, anyway), not just the text of the decision of the jurisdiction.

But speaking of online "US docket type" access, it seems that the range of documents available online is much more limited. Only the "avocats aux Conseils" (i.e. attorneys before the Cour de cassation or the Conseil d’Etat) have access to the "pièces de la procédure" through an intranet. The "avoués" in cases before the "cours d’appel" that test the new system also have that kind of access.

But if you are not directly involved in a case, you are not getting anything else than the decision itself, paper format or not. There is, of course, at the Cour de cassation and the Conseil d’Etat, the advocate general’s reasoning and it may be published, but I think that’s all.

Full text

There is an official mini-guide for requesting a copy of a decision of a jurisdiction (in French). It seems to me that it lacks some important information, but it stresses that if you are not one of the parties (or its attorney of course), you may not have access to decisions which are not given in public.

To get a full-text copy of the French judge’s decision, call a colleague who has a subscription to one or more of the first four French legal databases listed above (Legifrance is free). If you don’t have such a colleague or he/she did not find anything on those databases, call a French attorney/lawyer and ask him to get it for you.

If impossible, call the Lexbase CRDL+ service or see with Lamy’s equivalent service and ask for a quote (warning : normally, a subscription is needed).

See also :

• in French Law by Steiner, its Appendix I, titled "Where to find cases
• and this page on the European eJustice portal.

If not possible, I guess you’ll have to do it the "paper way" :

• get the jurisdiction’s address or fax number through the French Yellow Pages
• send them (in French) a letter or fax to the "greffe" (the secretary of the jurisdiction) of the court specifying the court chamber, the day the decision was given, the name of the parties and if possible the "rôle" number. Those last two pieces of information are compulsory : either you have a "rôle" number or you have the day + the chamber + the parties’ names. Also, if it is an administrative court, you’ll have to pay a fee (in Euros) but it may generally be done afterwards. Get prepared for a two weeks delay at the very least, while the Paris Cour d’appel generally answers with a two months delay. If you are looking for a "Tribunal de commerce" (TCom / commercial, first level jurisdiction) decision, you have first to enquire about the price (which may vary from one tribunal to another), then send a check of the requested amount. The administrative jurisdictions and TCom decisons are generally sent within a few days.

Otherwise, well ... no way.

Keep in mind that copies of commercial and administrative jurisdictions’ decisions are available for a fee. If you are not accustomed to order French decisions, it is recommended to call the "greffe" and ask for price and procedure before you order.

Good luck and, if you are requesting a judiciary civil or criminal decision, be patient. As one famous French poet once wrote : « Patience and the passing of time achieve more than force nor rage. » [2]

Emmanuel Barthe
French law librarian researcher