The same handful of mistakes, over and over
Most files that land on our desk after months of a foreign creditor trying to handle things alone share the same small set of avoidable missteps. None of them are exotic points of French law — they are timing and process errors that cost leverage, and sometimes cost the debt itself. This guide runs through the six we see most often, and what to do instead.
Mistake 1 — letting the clock run while staying "informal"
A commercial debt in France does not stay claimable forever. It prescribes after five years under commercial law — and, critically, reminder emails do not reset that clock; see the five-year prescription clock explained for what actually does. Creditors who spend two or three of those years sending polite reminder emails and waiting for "next quarter" promises are burning a large share of the window before any formal step has been taken at all.
Set an internal deadline for how long informal follow-up gets before the file moves to a formal notice — 60 to 90 days after the invoice becomes overdue is a reasonable default for most B2B relationships. Escalating does not have to end the commercial relationship; it usually just gets taken seriously.
Mistake 2 — confusing a reminder email with a formal notice
"I've sent them three emails" is not the same thing as sending a formal notice (mise en demeure). A formal notice from a French lawyer is a specific legal act, addressed to the debtor in French, that starts triggering statutory consequences — late-payment interest and the fixed recovery indemnity the law grants a creditor, and the credibility that comes with a law firm's letterhead. Reminder emails from your accounts team, however firm the tone, do not carry the same weight and rarely change a debtor's calculus.
Mistake 3 — assuming distance or language rules it out
Creditors regularly delay acting for months because they assume pursuing a French debtor means travel, a French-speaking team, or navigating an unfamiliar court system alone. None of that is accurate. You never need to travel to France, you never need to speak French, and your attorney does not need a power of attorney to represent you — see instructing a French lawyer without travelling to France and does not speaking French stop you suing a French debtor. The perceived barrier is usually the biggest reason a case starts late, not any real obstacle in the process itself.
Mistake 4 — treating a judgment as if it were payment
Winning a case and getting paid are two different events, separated by an enforcement step that some creditors do not budget time or attention for. A payment order or a court judgment is an enforceable title — it does not move money on its own. That requires instructing a commissaire de justice to locate the debtor's assets and execute a seizure. Creditors who assume the case is over once judgment is obtained are often surprised, and sometimes slower than they should be, at exactly the stage that actually gets them paid.
Mistake 5 — not verifying the debtor's exact legal identity
"The French office" or "the group's French entity" is not a legal defendant — a specific registered company, with a specific name and registered address, is. Creditors who file, or even just send a formal notice, against the wrong entity within a corporate group lose time correcting it. This is a five-minute check against the French company registry before anything is sent, not an afterthought once a document has bounced back. Our FAQ on jurisdiction and applicable law covers the branch-versus-subsidiary trap in more detail.
Mistake 6 — waiting too long to consider freezing assets
A pre-judgment freeze on a French bank account is fast and does not require notifying the debtor in advance — but it only works if it is requested before the debtor has moved the money. Creditors who spend months negotiating before mentioning the possibility of a freeze sometimes discover, once they finally ask, that the account they were counting on is already empty. If there is any sign of financial trouble or evasiveness, this is a decision to raise with your lawyer early, not a last resort.
The pattern behind all six
Every mistake above comes from the same instinct: treating a French debt recovery case as something to manage informally for as long as possible, out of politeness, uncertainty about the process, or hope that it resolves itself. The realistic case journey we walk through elsewhere shows that acting early rarely damages the commercial relationship and consistently improves the odds of getting paid in full.
Frequently asked questions
Usually less than creditors fear. A formal notice is a standard, expected step in commercial practice, not an accusation, and it often produces payment precisely because it signals the matter is now being taken seriously.
Not necessarily — the five-year prescription period leaves room in most cases, but the sooner a formal notice is sent, the more of that window is preserved for the steps that follow if it is not paid.
Send us the debtor's name and any address or registration number you have; confirming the exact registered entity from French registry records is one of the first things we do, at no cost, before anything is sent.
Mistake 1 and 2 combined — months or years of informal follow-up with no formal notice ever sent. It is the easiest one to avoid and the one that costs the most time.
You can, and settlement offers are always brought to you for a decision. But once a formal notice has gone out, route any debtor contact through your lawyer — direct settlement talk outside that channel can undercut the legal pressure the notice creates.
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