French Code of Criminal Procedure
In forceThe Public Prosecutor notifies each of the parties and their lawyer by registered letter of the date on which the case will be called for hearing. Notification shall be made to the detained person by the head of the prison who shall, without delay, send to the Public Prosecutor the original or copy of the receipt signed by the person. Notification to any non-detained person, to the civil party or to the applicant mentioned in the fifth paragraph of Article 99 shall be made to the last address declared as long as the investigating judge has not closed his investigation.
A minimum period of forty-eight hours in the case of pre-trial detention, and five days in all other cases, must be observed between the date on which the registered letter is sent and the date of the hearing.
During this period, the file of the proceedings, including the prosecution's submissions, is deposited at the registry of the investigating chamber and made available to the lawyers of the accused persons and the civil parties whose constitution has not been contested or, if contested, when it has not been retained. The parties' lawyers or, if they do not have a lawyer, the parties may obtain a copy of these summonses without delay and by simple written request, without prejudice to their right to request a copy of the entire case file pursuant to the fourth paragraph of Article 114. The issue of the first copy of the requisitions is free of charge.
The incomplete nature of the investigating chamber's file does not constitute a ground for nullity as long as the parties' lawyers have access to the entire file held at the investigating judge's registry. If the Examining Magistrate's Chamber is informed that documents are missing, it will postpone the hearing to a later date if it appears to it that knowledge of these documents is essential to the examination of the application or appeal submitted to it.
