A court run by business people, not career judges
If your French debtor is a company and you end up in court, the case will almost always be heard by a tribunal de commerce (commercial court). The first surprise for many foreign creditors: the judges are not professional magistrates. They are elected business owners and executives — merchants judging merchants — sitting as unpaid volunteers alongside a small permanent administrative staff (the greffe, headed by a clerk who is a private officer, not a civil servant).
This "peer justice" model dates back centuries in France and still shapes how commercial disputes are handled today: practical, business-literate, and generally faster than ordinary civil courts on straightforward money claims.
Tribunal de commerce — both parties are "merchants" in the legal sense: companies (SAS, SARL, SA...) and traders performing acts of commerce. A dispute between two businesses over a commercial matter falls squarely within its jurisdiction (article L.721-3 du Code de commerce), which is the default for almost every B2B invoice dispute.
Tribunal judiciaire — the debtor is not a merchant: a regulated profession (doctor, architect), an individual acting outside any business activity, an association, or certain civil entities.
That tells you the type of court. Which specific court — Paris, Nanterre, Lyon, Marseille, and so on — is a separate, territorial question: as a rule, the court for the debtor's registered office (article 42 du Code de procédure civile), unless your contract contains a valid jurisdiction clause pointing elsewhere.
How the judges get there
Commercial court judges (juges consulaires) are elected by their peers — other business owners, company directors and delegates — for renewable terms, and typically sit part-time alongside running their own companies. There is no jury in French commercial litigation, and no professional magistrate on the bench for a standard case. For a contested hearing, cases are generally heard by a panel of at least three judges; a single judge (often the president or a delegate) handles urgent matters such as a référé.
In practice, this means the people deciding your case understand commercial life first-hand — late deliveries, disputed invoices, cash-flow excuses — even if they are not trained lawyers. Your attorney's role is to frame the legal argument and the evidence in a way that lands with that audience.
Since 1 January 2025, twelve French courts (including Paris and Nanterre) are piloting a renamed and widened jurisdiction, the Tribunal des Activités Économiques, as a four-year experiment running to 31 December 2028 (loi n° 2023-1059 du 20 novembre 2023). The TAE only takes over insolvency and prevention proceedings (safeguard, receivership, liquidation) — for all types of debtors, not just merchants. It does not change anything described in this article: an ordinary unpaid-invoice claim, a payment order, or a référé still goes through the standard tribunal de commerce exactly as below, even in one of the twelve pilot jurisdictions.
What actually happens once a claim is filed
French commercial litigation runs very differently from a common-law trial. There is generally no live witness testimony or cross-examination: the case is built on written submissions (conclusions) and documentary exhibits exchanged between the lawyers, with a comparatively brief oral hearing where each side's attorney presents the case to the panel. Which track your case follows depends entirely on whether the debt is disputed:
Debt is undisputed
You go straight for a payment order (injonction de payer) — filed and reviewed on paper, no hearing at all. Fastest and cheapest route for a clean file.
Debt is contested, but weakly
A short référé-provision hearing (2 to 6 weeks) lets a single judge order provisional payment when the debtor's objection is not "seriously disputed".
Debt is genuinely contested
A full action on the merits (assignation au fond) before the panel of three judges: written submissions exchanged over several rounds, one or more hearings, final judgment in 12 to 24 months.
Asset at risk of disappearing
Any of the above can be combined with a pre-judgment asset freeze to stop the debtor moving funds before you get paid.
Frequently asked questions
No. For a standard B2B commercial claim, your attorney represents you throughout — there is no requirement for the creditor (or its representative) to travel to France or appear physically at any stage, including the hearing itself.
Territorial jurisdiction generally follows the debtor's registered office (art. 42 du Code de procédure civile) — so the tribunal de commerce of Paris, Nanterre, Lyon, Marseille, etc., depending on where your debtor is incorporated. Whether it is a tribunal de commerce at all follows from the nature of the dispute (art. L.721-3 du Code de commerce). A valid jurisdiction clause in your contract can override the default territorial rule.
Yes, French commercial court hearings are open to the public as a matter of principle, like most civil proceedings in France.
Yes. A judgment on the merits can be appealed to the cour d'appel (court of appeal), which reviews both facts and law. Appeal proceedings typically add another 12 to 18 months if the debtor chooses to contest a full judgment.
French, exclusively — it is the language of the French judiciary. Your attorney handles the entire proceeding in French on your behalf and reports back to you in English at every stage.
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