Litigation in Morocco
Morocco is a beautiful country, with an incredible mix of cultures. One of the best classic movies of all time takes place there, and it is home to 38 million people and the fifth largest economy in Africa. While I have not yet had the pleasure of going and bothering its residents avec mon français, I have had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Christian Steiner, a partner at Ule & Steiner SLP, about litigation in Morocco.
Why should you continue reading this post about litigation in Morocco?
You have already read my interviews with litigators in African countries, litigators in francophone jurisdictions, and litigators in Arabic speaking jurisdictions, and you’d like to read an interview with elements of each.
You don’t have enough “occan” and so you want to find content that is “Moroccan.”
You are curious about a jurisdiction without electronic filing of documents.
Dr. Christian Steiner is a partner at Ule & Steiner SLP, He works with a local team of lawyers in Morocco.
Can you tell me about the kinds of disputes you handle in your legal practice?
We handle predominantly commercial and international cases: corporate, commercial, civil, real estate, trade mark, some inheritance.
What type of clients do you generally represent in disputes?
The majority of our clients are big companies and SME, mainly with foreign shareholders, often in the course of establishing subsidiaries in Morocco.
Besides Microsoft Office, what software do you use in your practice?
Usually a common office suite. We are currently implementing new file management software.
What books and websites do you use for legal research?
We use all sorts of online research tools, including AI tools.
Articles in Arabic are not widely available online, so research with books is required. There is now also an online database on jurisprudence collecting mainly high court judgements.
Image credit: https://justice.gov.ma/2023/01/18/وزير-العدل-السيد-عبد-اللطيف-وهبي-يدشن-م/
There are two official languages spoken in Morocco, plus French. What language do Morrocan court proceedings take place in?
The Moroccan constitution says the official languages of the country are Arabic and Amazigh. But all court filings are in Arabic and court documents must be translated into Arabic.
Sometimes judges let parties submit documents in French because the judges can understand French.
Do you electronically file pleadings with the court? Or must you send paper copies of them to the courthouse?
For the moment, we still submit documents in paper.
Lawyers or their assistants must deliver documents to court personally. The submission must be made by the lawyer or an assistant who works at the lawyer’s office and can prove that fact with an identification card. The submission may be on the day of a hearing or the day before, at which time the tribunal will stamp the document and a copy. At the time of the submission, there may be a brief opportunity to speak with the judge. But there are usually no oral pleadings.
There is an ongoing project to computerize court submissions so that lawyers can start submitting documents online and letting opposing parties see our submissions online. At the moment, parties and lawyers can consult the status of proceedings online, but the platform is not fully reliable.
Does Morocco have specialized courts that only hear commercial cases?
There are commercial courts in most major cities, but not all.
Commercial courts in Morocco only hear litigation between two merchants or companies that concern more than 20,000 Moroccan dirhams, or approximately 2,000 euros.
These courts use the same civil procedure code as in other courts, but the substantive law may differ depending on the subject matter of the case. The benefit of the commercial court is that its judges should be more familiar with the commercial code and more focused on commercial matters.
Who decides the facts in a commercial case? Is it a judge or a jury?
The are no juries for commercial cases. A judge or a group of judges decides those.
Generally speaking, how many pages are the complaints or initial pleadings you see in your work?
The length depends on the kind of case.
If it concerns the dismissal of an employee, the first request may be 3-5 pages. In other commercial cases, the pleading could be more than 15 or 20 pages.
There are not really long requests or submissions, keeping in mind that also in Morocco the courts or overburdened and can hardly be expected to read excessively long submissions.
Generally speaking, how long does it take for a case to go from complaint to judgment?
Normally this process can take between three months and six months.
Civil cases move quickly, and there can be between three weeks or a month between hearings. Criminal cases go even faster.
Generally speaking, how is evidence exchanged between the parties before trial? Do you get to interview the opposing witnesses before the trial?
Normally, you can informally ask for evidence if you have a good relationship with opposing counsel. But if not, there is no required sharing of evidence. Instead, the only requirement is to submit evidence to the judge, with a copy to opposing counsel. Everyone is responsible for finding their own evidence.
Similarly, you can examine witnesses, but only at the hearing and not before. At the hearing, if there is any, the judge does the primary questioning, then the judge asks the lawyers if there are more questions to pose. Attorneys cannot speak directly to witnesses.
Commercial cases, though, mostly follow a written procedure. In those cases, usually no one speaks with witnesses or presents oral pleadings.
If you win, does the other side reimburse your attorneys’ fees?
No, but there is a fee that the prevailing party may recover. The tribunal itself charges 1% of the amount in dispute as a fee and the claimant pays that amount at the beginning. Recovery of this fee can be included in the judgment for a winning claimant, but in practice, claimants only ask for it if this is a high number.
Since each side bears their own legal fees, there is a tendency for defendants to delay proceedings. They may hire a cheap lawyer to litigate and appeal as a means to delay their obligation to pay or dissuade a claimant from pursuing litigation.
Are the Moroccan courts open to the public? Can ordinary people watch a commercial trial?
They are open for the public, but the public usually doesn’t come to watch commercial cases because there is no interesting show to watch, just discussions between lawyers, if there are oral pleadings at all.
Criminal court, on the other hand, as elsewhere, may be a “show“ for the ordinary citizen worth seeing, and people do come to watch, especially if the accused are public figures or if the victim’s family wants to see justice at work.
Do you believe that Moroccan courts have a particular strength for resolving commercial disputes? How about a weakness? What are they?
Like everywhere, it ultimately depends on the commitment of each individual. You can find good judges in Morocco, and others that could do more for the sake of justice. One would not expect the courts in Morocco to be as quick as they are, but compared to other jurisdictions in the region and in Europe, Moroccan courts are not necessarily less efficient.
As for weaknesses, the Moroccan system for commercial disputes usually only involves written submissions and that doesn’t make the search for a resolution of a case very effective. That could be improved by allowing more oral hearings. The focus on written submissions may be due to the fact that legal training in Morocco does not focus on training lawyers to discuss legal issues on the spot orally.
Another area for improvement is the lack of electronic filing. This makes it hard for lawyers with multiple cases requiring appearances in different cities on the same day. This is an inefficient use of time that lawyers could instead be spending on research.
How often do you go to the courthouse?
Our team goes to court every day from Monday to Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. There are no court hearings on Fridays.
When you are there, do you need to wear a special robe or wig?
Lawyers must wear a special robe, which is called a “bidla” (البدلة).