By Raphaël MORENON
30 March 2025
Civil procedure is based on time limits that structure judicial time and guarantee balanced justice. These time limits come from three distinct sources: the law, the judge and sometimes even agreements between the parties. Accurate knowledge of these time limits is a major challenge for all litigants. Legal time limits Legal time limits derive directly from legislative or regulatory texts that determine their precise duration. Historically, the 1806 Code of Civil Procedure provided for a pace of proceedings theoretically governed by legal time limits. The reality differed: fifteen days for statements of defence, eight days for statements in reply. But failure to comply with these time limits did not entail any effective sanction. There have been significant changes since then. Decree no. 2009-1524 of 9 December 2009 introduced strict time limits for the exchange of appeal submissions: three months for the appellant and the intervener, three months for the respondent and three months for the defendant.
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