Injonction de Payer: France's Fast-Track Order to Pay Explained

What the injonction de payer is and which debts it covers

The injonction de payer (order to pay) is a simplified recovery procedure that lets a creditor obtain a court order against a non-paying debtor on the papers alone. There is no hearing, the creditor does not have to attend, and the judge rules on the strength of the supporting documents filed with the request. It is fast and inexpensive, and no lawyer is required whatever the amount claimed. For foreign businesses chasing an unpaid French invoice, the order to pay is often the first tool to consider before launching a full lawsuit.

The procedure is only open to certain debts. Under Article 1405 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the claim must arise from a contractual cause — a contract, a purchase order, general terms of sale — or from a statutory obligation, and it must be certain with an amount that is fixed by the terms of the contract. If the sum owed depends on a complex formula, on facts the debtor could reasonably dispute, or on the court's own assessment of damages, the order to pay is not available and the claim must go through the ordinary route. The same article extends the procedure to obligations arising from negotiable instruments, such as a bill of exchange, a promissory note, or a Dailly assignment of receivables.

The debtor must be a private-law person — an individual or a company, association or other private entity — with a residence or establishment in France. A foreign-domiciled debtor can still be pursued if it holds an office or premises in France; where the debtor is domiciled elsewhere in the European Union, the separate European order for payment may be used instead. Public bodies cannot be targeted by this procedure, because claims against them fall to the administrative courts. A debtor already in insolvency (procédure collective) is also off-limits: the creditor must then stop all individual action and lodge a proof of claim.

What sums the order to pay can recover

Where the creditor seeks payment of a contract concluded with the debtor, it may claim all the unpaid sums stipulated in that contract. If the contract contains a penalty clause (clause pénale), the injonction de payer allows the creditor to recover the amount fixed by that clause, because the figure is set in advance and does not require the judge to assess loss. Without a penalty clause, the creditor cannot use this procedure to claim damages, even where the late payment has caused real and serious harm — an unliquidated damages claim has to be pursued through the ordinary route.

Between two businesses, the creditor may add the statutory late-payment penalties to the invoice amount. These run from the day after the payment date shown on the invoice, at the contractual or statutory rate, and the creditor can also seek their capitalisation once they have been due for a full year. The order to pay can therefore capture the principal invoice, contractual penalties and statutory late-payment interest in a single request, which is one reason it is well suited to clean B2B debt where the paperwork is in order.

The creditor may also ask for a contribution to its recovery costs — the time spent chasing the debt, recorded-delivery letters and the like — as an equitable indemnity. Bounced cheques are the notable exclusion: a cheque returned unpaid is recovered through its own dedicated simplified procedure, not through the injonction de payer. Before filing, it is usually worth sending a formal demand for payment (mise en demeure), both because it may prompt payment and because it strengthens the file placed before the judge.

Which court hears an injonction de payer

The request goes to a different judge depending on the nature of the debt and the status of the parties. Where both creditor and debtor are traders and the debtor entered the unpaid contract for the needs of its business, or where the dispute concerns an act of commerce whoever the parties are, the request is presented to the president of the commercial court (tribunal de commerce, now the tribunal des activités économiques in a number of cities). This is the usual venue for a B2B supply or services debt and connects to the broader question of which court hears a commercial debt.

Where the debtor is a private individual, the request is submitted to the president of the judicial court (tribunal judiciaire), unless the matter falls to the protective-litigation judge (juge des contentieux de la protection) — in practice residential leases and consumer credit. Each forum uses its own prefilled request form, available free from the court registry or online, and the request can be lodged at the registry, sent by post or, before the commercial courts, filed electronically.

Territorial jurisdiction is fixed by Article 1406 of the Code of Civil Procedure: the competent judge is the one for the place where the debtor — or one of several debtors — resides. These rules are a matter of public policy. That has a consequence foreign creditors often miss: in an order-to-pay procedure you cannot rely on a jurisdiction clause in your contract or general terms of sale to move the case to a court of your choosing. The debtor's home court decides.

Filing the request and the supporting documents

The creditor's claim is made by a written request (requête), and in practice this means completing a standardised court form. No lawyer is needed to present the request, whatever the amount to be recovered. Because the judge decides ex parte — on the documents, without hearing the debtor — the quality of the file is everything. The court will grant the order only if the papers prove both the existence and the extent of the debt.

To the request the creditor must attach the documents that establish the claim and a schedule (bordereau) listing them. A well-built file typically includes the purchase order or quote, the signed contract or accepted general terms, the invoice, the delivery note, and the chasing letters and formal demand sent to the debtor. The stronger and more self-explanatory the paper trail, the higher the chance the judge grants the full amount without querying the calculation.

It is prudent to file certified copies rather than unique originals, so that a key document — the original of a bill of exchange, for instance — is not mislaid, though some judges will insist on originals. The safest course is to ask the registry for its list of required documents before lodging. Where the request goes to a commercial court, a small registry fee is payable with the file. The injonction de payer is deliberately light on formality, but that places the whole evidential burden on the request itself.

The order (ordonnance) and service within six months

If the judge is satisfied, the registry delivers to the creditor a certified copy of the order bearing the enforceable form. This ordonnance must then be served on the debtor by the creditor, and service can only be carried out by a commissaire de justice (the merged bailiff-judicial officer profession). The creditor cannot substitute a recorded-delivery letter for this step — proper service by a commissaire de justice is what sets the debtor's rights, and the supporting documents are made available to the debtor electronically at the same time.

Timing is strict. Under Article 1411 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the creditor has six months from the date of the order to serve it. Miss that window and the order lapses — it becomes non avenue, a dead letter — and the creditor is back to square one. Because only service (not the initial request, and not the enforceable form on its own) interrupts the limitation period, a creditor watching a prescription deadline must build the six-month service step into its planning from the outset.

The order carries interest from the day it is served on the debtor. It does not yet operate as a final enforceable title, however: it becomes one only if the debtor does not oppose it within the time allowed. Until that window closes, the order is provisional in effect, which is why the next stage — the debtor's right to object — is the pivot of the whole procedure.

The debtor's opposition and the shift to a hearing

Once served, the debtor may oppose the order to pay. Opposition is free of charge for the debtor (aside from lawyer's fees where the amount at stake exceeds a statutory threshold) and requires no reasons: the debtor simply files a declaration at the registry or sends a recorded-delivery letter to the registry — not to the commissaire de justice who served the order. Under Article 1416 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the debtor must act within one month of service, and where service was not made in person, that month runs only from the first later act served on the debtor personally or from the first seizure.

A timely opposition is suspensive: the creditor can no longer demand payment, and the whole matter shifts to a contradictory hearing. The registry summons both sides before the competent court — commercial court, judicial court or protective-litigation judge — where each argues its case. The creditor must attend or be represented; before the judicial court a lawyer becomes mandatory once the claim exceeds the statutory ceiling. Crucially, if the creditor fails to appear, the proceedings lapse and the order is rendered non avenue, so an opposition must be actively followed through.

At the hearing the debtor must raise, from the outset, every ground it relies on to resist the claim — it cannot hold arguments in reserve for a later action. The debtor may also bring a counterclaim if it considers itself a creditor of the party that obtained the order. The judgment that follows the opposition substitutes itself for the order to pay. If it favours the creditor, the creditor serves it and can move to enforcement; an appeal is available where the claim exceeds the relevant threshold. In practice, opposition is rare — the Paris commercial court reports an opposition rate below one in ten — but a contested file can turn into a full adversarial dispute.

If there is no opposition: an enforceable title

Where the debtor lets the one-month window pass without opposing, the served order becomes a full enforceable title and produces all the effects of an adversarial judgment. This is the strength of the injonction de payer over some alternatives: once the deadline has passed, the debtor can no longer raise any contest whatsoever on the debt, and can at most sue over facts arising after the procedure. The creditor holds a title as solid as a judgment reached after a fought trial.

With the title in hand, a creditor whose debtor still does not pay can instruct a commissaire de justice to enforce — for example by an attachment of bank accounts, a wage garnishment, or a seizure of assets. This is where the order to pay connects to the wider mechanics of enforcing a judgment and carrying out seizures in France. The uncontested order and the enforcement measures together form the complete recovery path from unpaid invoice to money in the account.

If instead the judge refuses the request, or grants only part of it, there is no appeal for the creditor. The creditor can start again through the ordinary procedure (though not a référé after a refusal), bearing in mind that the failed request did not interrupt prescription. Where the order is granted only in part, the creditor chooses between serving it — and forgoing the balance — or declining to serve and pursuing the whole debt by the ordinary route.

Pros, cons and the référé-provision alternative

The injonction de payer's advantages are speed, low cost, the absence of a hearing, and — where the debtor stays silent — a title with the full weight of a judgment that cannot later be reopened. Its limits are equally clear: it works only for certain, liquidated, contract-based debts; it cannot deliver unliquidated damages; the request does not stop the limitation clock; jurisdiction clauses are ignored; and if the debtor opposes, you are drawn into an ordinary adversarial dispute after all.

The main alternative for a due-but-possibly-contested debt is the référé-provision, a fast interim procedure that yields an immediately enforceable order in roughly a month where the debt is not seriously disputable. It is adversarial from the start, so the debtor is heard, and its order is provisional — the merits can in theory be reopened, though in practice creditors rarely see that happen. The table below sets out the trade-off.

There is no single right answer. If your invoice, delivery note and formal demand tell the whole story and you expect no fight, the order to pay is usually the cheapest and cleanest route. If you fear a dispute but the debt is not seriously arguable, the référé-provision buys immediacy. If the sum is uncertain or the limitation period is closing, the ordinary procedure is the safer bet.

The injonction de payer step by step

The practical sequence below turns an unpaid French invoice into an enforceable order to pay. Each step maps to a formal requirement, and skipping one — the formal demand, the six-month service deadline — is where cases come unstuck.

Frequently asked questions about the injonction de payer

What is an injonction de payer?

It is France's fast-track order to pay: a simplified, low-cost procedure in which a creditor obtains a court order against a non-paying debtor on the documents alone, without a hearing and, in most cases, without a lawyer. It suits a certain, liquidated debt with a contractual or commercial cause.

When can I use the order to pay?

You can use it when the debt arises from a contract or statutory obligation, is certain, and its amount is fixed by the terms of the contract, as required by Article 1405 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It is not available for unliquidated damages, disputed calculations, or debts owed by a public body or by a debtor already in insolvency proceedings.

Where do I file the request?

You file with the president of the commercial court where both parties are traders and the debt is for the debtor's business, or where the dispute concerns an act of commerce. Otherwise you file with the president of the judicial court, or with the protective-litigation judge for residential leases and consumer credit. Territorial jurisdiction follows the debtor's residence under Article 1406.

Do I need a lawyer?

No lawyer is required to present the request, whatever the amount claimed. A lawyer may become mandatory later if the debtor opposes and the contested claim before the judicial court exceeds the statutory ceiling. For cross-border creditors, taking advice early still helps you build a file that survives an opposition.

How does the debtor object?

The debtor opposes by filing a declaration at the court registry or sending a recorded-delivery letter to the registry within one month of service, under Article 1416 of the Code of Civil Procedure. No reasons are needed, opposition is free, and it is suspensive — it stops the creditor demanding payment and moves the case to a contradictory hearing.

What happens if there is no opposition?

If the debtor does not oppose within one month of service, the order becomes a full enforceable title with all the effects of an adversarial judgment. The debtor can no longer contest the debt, and the creditor can instruct a commissaire de justice to enforce by seizure — for example a bank-account attachment or wage garnishment.

How long do I have to serve the order?

You must serve the order on the debtor, through a commissaire de justice, within six months of the date of the order under Article 1411. After that it lapses and becomes a dead letter. Because only service interrupts the limitation period, plan the service step carefully where a prescription deadline is near.

How our French lawyers help with the injonction de payer

Petroff Avocats acts on both sides of the order to pay. For creditors, we assess whether the debt qualifies, build a request file that persuades the judge to grant the full amount ex parte, choose between the injonction de payer, a référé-provision and the ordinary procedure, watch the limitation and six-month service deadlines, instruct the commissaire de justice, and drive enforcement through to recovery. For debtors served with an order, we file a timely opposition and prepare the defence — a contract dispute, a defective performance, prescription — before the one-month window closes. For foreign businesses in particular, we bridge the gap between your contract and French procedure so the right court, the right form and the right evidence come together.

This article is for general information only. It does not constitute legal advice and cannot replace an assessment of your specific debt, contract and debtor. The rules of the injonction de payer, the applicable thresholds and time limits may change and depend on the facts. Contact our French lawyers for advice on your situation.