Trade

Depending on the degree of urgency, several options are available:

• Summary proceedings, a rapid procedure: The interim relief judge is called upon to rule provisionally on an urgent or manifestly unlawful situation. The decision of the interim relief judge is provisional, meaning that it may be challenged if the losing party decides to initiate conventional proceedings on the merits. The interim order is, however, provisionally enforceable. The average time taken to obtain a decision is 3 months.
• The hour-to-hour summary procedure, an extremely rapid procedure: An exceptional procedure for obtaining a provisional decision within a few days in the most serious and urgent cases. To use this procedure, you need to petition the President of the Court for authorization. If the President authorizes it, you must then summon your adversary. The average time taken to obtain a decision is a few days.
• Fixed-date procedure, a very rapid procedure: This is an exceptional procedure enabling a dispute to be settled definitively on its merits within a few weeks, to avoid damage or to put an end to a prejudicial situation. To use this procedure, you must also request authorization from the President of the Tribunal, by means of a request justifying the urgency of the situation. If the President authorizes it, you must then summon your adversary to appear on a fixed date. On average, it takes several months to obtain a decision on the merits of the case.

Expert appraisal is particularly useful for resolving technical issues that may arise in disputes of all kinds (construction/real estate, medical, intellectual property, commercial).

When it comes to intellectual property, the involvement of a legal expert can be particularly useful for :

• valuing an intellectual property asset and/or the amount of royalties ;
• identifying counterfeit music ;
• determining the scope of rights covered by a license ;

To obtain the intervention of a legal expert, you must apply to the competent court judge for his appointment by means of a writ of summons, known as a "référé-expertise", setting out the situation and the reasons requiring such intervention.

The expert is appointed by the judge by means of a summary order from the list of legal experts drawn up by the competent court. The judge determines the scope of the expert's mission. The claimant will be required to pay an advance on the expert's fees.

The court-appointed expert schedules an "accedit", an adversarial meeting between the parties and the expert, during which the expert reviews the situation and the parties are given the opportunity to present their observations. Depending on the degree of difficulty of the appraisal, several meetings may be organized by the expert.

At the end of these, the legal expert draws up a preliminary report giving the parties his analysis, findings and conclusions. The parties have the opportunity to respond to the report with "statements".

When the expert deems that he has enough information, he draws up his final report, to which the parties can once again respond through summary "statements".

It is then necessary for the party requesting the expert report tosummon his adversary on the merits, "opening the report" by relying on the conclusions of the expert report, or conversely by criticizing certain points on which opinions diverge.

In this capacity, the firm assists its clients with expert appraisal meetings, as well as with the drafting of deeds relating to expert appraisal requests and operations:

• Summons for expert appraisal;
• Words;
• Summons to open report