First 45-minute meeting, CHF 200, deducted from the first invoice if you retain us.
Enforcement, setting aside, attachment
Contracts, shareholders, liability
Geneva courts and arbitration
French, English, German
In litigation, a right is often lost on a deadline, whether the ten days to object to a payment order, the thirty days to appeal a judgment or the limitation period that runs while the parties are still talking. A first conversation lets us check these deadlines, then assess the stakes, the prospects and the cost of proceedings, in complete confidence.
Where the money was obtained by fraud, the matter goes through our fraud and asset recovery practice, and the contract to be drafted or renegotiated through business law.
Reminder, formal notice, then debt enforcement. The route depends on the title you hold, a signed acknowledgment of debt, a contract or a mere invoice, and on the debtor’s solvency.
Ten days to file an objection, without having to give reasons. Then, defense against the request to set aside the objection or against the creditor’s action, and an action for a declaration that the debt does not exist if the objection is provisionally set aside.
Defective delivery, poorly performed services, disputed termination. Formal notice, quantification of the damage, then negotiation or court action.
Deadlock on the board or at the general meeting, a shareholder denied access to information, a disputed exit, directors’ liability.
A debt is recovered where the debtor’s assets are. Attachment of the assets the debtor holds in Switzerland where the law allows it, otherwise proceedings before the courts of the country where the judgment can be enforced.
Acknowledgment of debt, debt enforcement and setting aside of the objection, or a criminal complaint where the money was obtained by deceit. The classification determines the route.
Matthias Traussnig spent three years at the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Canton of Geneva and conducts civil and criminal proceedings. Debt enforcement, trial, criminal complaint or negotiation, the route is chosen knowing how each authority will read the file.
Objection, appeal, challenge, limitation. Deadlines are checked from the first conversation, before any other step.
The advance on costs, the fees and the risk of paying the other side’s costs are estimated in light of the amount at stake and the prospects of success.
A settlement is negotiated with a file ready to be argued in court, and that is what gives leverage.
Where a dispute also has a criminal dimension, both routes move forward together, each one supporting the other.
Drawn from the firm’s matters, anonymized.
A debt owed by someone based outside Switzerland is recovered where the debtor’s assets are. Formal notices in French and English were sent from Geneva, ahead of proceedings before the courts of the debtor’s country, where the judgment can be enforced.
A similar situation? Get in touch → 02 · LitigationA founder leaves his employer and starts his own company. The former employer accuses him of disparaging its business and poaching its clients. We defend the founder and his new company, on unfair competition as well as on the non-compete clause.
A similar situation? Get in touch → 03 · DigitalA Swiss company’s access keys were hacked and used at its expense. The cloud bill reached several hundred thousand francs. It was challenged with the provider and a criminal complaint was filed, the two proceedings pursued in parallel, each one supporting the other.
Read the analysis →« He always took the time to explain the different stages to me very clearly and gave me a realistic assessment of the situation, without ever making unrealistic promises. »
Every matter is different. The outcome of a past case does not predict the outcome of another.
You can file an objection, orally or in writing, either immediately with the person who serves the payment order or with the debt enforcement office within ten days of service (Art. 74 para. 1 DEBA). The objection does not need to state reasons (Art. 75 para. 1 DEBA). If you dispute only part of the debt, state the exact amount disputed, failing which the entire debt is deemed disputed (Art. 74 para. 2 DEBA). Without an objection, the creditor may request that the debt enforcement continue once 20 days have passed since service of the payment order (Art. 88 para. 1 DEBA).
Not always. A creditor holding an enforceable judgment applies for the definitive setting aside of the objection (Art. 80 para. 1 DEBA). A creditor holding an acknowledgment of debt, recorded in a public deed or under private signature, applies for the provisional setting aside (Art. 82 para. 1 DEBA), which the court grants unless the debtor immediately makes release from the debt plausible (Art. 82 para. 2 DEBA). The debtor then has 20 days to bring an action for a declaration that the debt does not exist (Art. 83 para. 2 DEBA). Without such a title, the creditor has the claim recognized through an action on the merits (Art. 79 DEBA).
Yes, through an attachment, in the cases listed by law, in particular where the debtor is removing assets to evade obligations, where the debtor does not live in Switzerland and the claim has a sufficient connection with Switzerland or is based on an acknowledgment of debt, or where the creditor holds a title for the definitive setting aside of an objection (Art. 271 para. 1 DEBA). The creditor must make it plausible that the claim exists, that there is a ground for attachment and that there are assets belonging to the debtor (Art. 272 para. 1 DEBA).
Yes, in principle. Proceedings on the merits are preceded by an attempt at conciliation before the conciliation authority (Art. 197 CPC), subject to statutory exceptions. That is often where the case settles or where positions are set. We prepare the application and the hearing as a hearing in its own right, not a formality.
As a rule, an action is time-barred after ten years (Art. 127 CO). Some claims are time-barred after five years, in particular rent, interest, craftsmen’s claims for their work and employees’ claims for their services (Art. 128 CO). The limitation period is interrupted when the debtor acknowledges the debt, for example by paying an installment, or when the creditor asserts its rights through debt enforcement, a request for conciliation or an action (Art. 135 CO).
An appeal, in writing and with reasons, must be filed within 30 days of service of the reasoned decision (Art. 311 para. 1 CPC) and, as a rule, within ten days where the decision was made in summary proceedings (Art. 314 CPC). Decisions on the setting aside of an objection and on attachment, made in summary proceedings, cannot be appealed and are open only to a limited appeal (recours) within ten days (Arts. 251 let. a, 309 let. b and 321 para. 2 CPC). An attachment order itself is first challenged by an opposition filed with the court within ten days of learning of it, and the decision on that opposition is then open to a recours (Art. 278 paras. 1 and 3 DEBA).
The court or the conciliation authority may require the claimant to pay an advance of up to half of the expected court costs, and up to the full amount in particular for conciliation, for summary proceedings other than interim measures and certain family law cases, and for appellate proceedings (Art. 98 CPC). At the end of the proceedings, the costs, which comprise court costs and party costs (Art. 95 para. 1 CPC), are charged to the unsuccessful party (Art. 106 para. 1 CPC). We estimate these items before bringing an action, in light of the amount at stake and the prospects of success.
A state court seized despite an arbitration agreement declines jurisdiction in principle (Art. 61 CPC, and Art. 7 PILA in international matters). Arbitration seated in Switzerland is governed by Chapter 12 of the PILA where at least one party, at the time the agreement was concluded, had neither its domicile, nor its habitual residence, nor its seat in Switzerland (Art. 176 para. 1 PILA), and otherwise by Part 3 of the CPC (Art. 353 para. 1 CPC). We act as counsel in institutional and ad hoc proceedings.
A first 45-minute meeting, at CHF 200, lets us check the applicable deadline, then assess the stakes, the prospects and the cost of proceedings, in complete confidence. The amount is deducted from the first invoice if you retain us.
First 45-minute meeting, CHF 200, deducted from the first invoice if you retain us.