Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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(We used to have a dual profession, as in the UK. However, the profession was unified in 1991 and there is therefore one profession of "avocats". Conveyancing is still the monopoly of “Notaries”.)
French avocats have definitely grasped the idea that the internet is an attractive way of getting closer to their potential clients who, on the whole, have a rather bleak view of their justice system. In 1997, a public survey revealed that 77% of the French people thought their justice system was too costly, 87% too old fashioned: for 66% of them, its overall image was bad.
French lawyers have therefore made considerable efforts to establish a presence on the web through sites which offer not only a presentation of their firms but which also contain substantive and informative contents: lawyers of the firm SPPS in Lille have created a major portal on French law (www.laportedudroit.com), with 1,700 fully evaluated links classified by subjects. The site receives more than 25,000 visits per month. The French Code of Conduct provides that lawyers setting up a website must inform the Bar Council and give details of the hosting company and how the site is accessed by the public. The contents of the website must comply with the rather strict rules established by the Code as regards brochures distributed by lawyers: in particular, it is still not possible for French lawyers to mention names of clients for which they have worked, unless the list is used abroad in a country where such publication is allowed or to mention activities unrelated to the profession.
Online advice has grown recently but is still very much an experimental venture on the French legal web. I have been able to identify 31 active web sites offering legal advice online with an average fee of €60 (approximately £40). Naxone (www.naxone.com) is the first so-called "virtual law firm" established on the French legal web. It was set up in February 2002 and focuses on business advice with a specific emphasis on companies' incorporation. Security is claimed to be ensured through the use of cryptology.
The Registry of the Commercial Court of Paris has initiated a revolutionary access for lawyers and legal professionals. After obtaining an electronic key, it is possible for lawyers, administrators and liquidators or judges to access a private area of the registry's website. It is then possible for them to consult judgments recently handed down, check the pending hearings etc. For the public, it is possible to obtain copies of an official extract of the companies' registry on any company incorporated at the Paris registry and other relevant information such as financial statements, charges and warrants. The site is available in English at www.greffe-tc-paris.fr/anglais/greffe2a_new.htm but you will be redirected to pages in French when it comes to ordering official documents. You can access a free online glossary of French/English legal terms used in the commercial context from this site.
Major developments are currently underway regarding electronic access to justice: in particular, several Bars in France are now thinking about a way of transmitting pleadings electronically directly to the relevant jurisdiction with a certification process ensuring appropriate logs. The developments contemplated are certainly not as far reaching as the recent "e-conveyancing" trend in the UK or as the "money claim" website but significant changes will most certainly facilitate access of both litigants and lawyers to justice and reinforce the effectiveness of the system. The French Administration has made some efforts in this regard: it is now possible to order a copy of one's criminal record or report websites with paedophile content.
French lawyers also use the internet for recruitment purposes. A recent survey published on one of the major legal community portals (www.village-justice.com) reveal that only 11% of the specialised legal recruiters will never use the internet for job ads and that almost 37% of them always use it to look for that perfect candidate.
Almost half of French lawyers claim to visit a legal website regularly. The most popular site is by far Legifrance (www.legifrance.gouv.fr) which recently “nationalised” an hitherto paying site (Jurifrance) and included most of its database on its servers for public access free of charge. This nationalisation is part of a larger program initiated by the French Government to give online access to legal resources a status of “public service”. On Legifrance, you will find all published statutes (lois) and statutory instruments (réglements), a very comprehensive database of judgments of the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation), the French Supreme Administrative Court (Conseil d’Etat) and some judgments from Courts of Appeal and lower courts, although the database for these judgments is still very much experimental. Resources in English are also available; in particular, most of our Codes are translated into English: you will find a translation of our Code of Civil Procedure, our Code of Intellectual Property, our Code of Post and Telecommunications, our Code of Insurance, our Commercial Code, our Criminal Code, our Consumers’ Code and, of course, our Civil Code. (www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/codes_traduits/liste.htm).
Other resources in English include: Banque de France (www.banque-france.fr/gb/banque/main.htm) and Assemblée Nationale (www.assemblee-nationale.fr).
Free resources available in French include: www.droit.org (a major portal), www.juriscom.net (dedicated to new technologies), www.dalloz.fr and www.ed-juris-classeur.fr (publishers).
If you are looking for French legal information on the web, feel free to email me and I will try to help.
Michael Haravon is a graduate from King's College London (LL.B.), Oxford University (B.C.L.) and the University of La Sorbonne in Paris (Maîtrise en droit privé). He is currently practising as an Avocat à la Cour in Paris where he specializes in litigation and arbitration. He is also a Barrister of Gray's Inn. Email michael.haravon@wanadoo.fr.
He maintains a website called Droit Anglais at www.droitanglais.org which is a site about English law designed for French lawyers; it contains information on English law, courts, institutions, publishers, legal news and precedents. There is also a glossary of French legal terms and English definitions.
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