Flow of proceedings of court of first instance of civil litigation in Cambodia

1- Filing a suit stage

Civil litigation starts from filing a suit to court (article 75). The matters which are necessary to write down in complaint, are: (1) the identities and address of parties, (2) identities and address of legal representative, (3) content of judgment sought and fact necessary to specify the claim pertaining to article 75, paragraph 2 item A and B. The matters, which are also necessary to write in complaint, are fact necessary to support the claim, article 75, and paragraph 3. These matters are not only let other party knows and understands the plaintiff's demand, but also court can smoothly prepared the point at issue and proceeds litigation.

After court received complaint, the court will distribute the case based on article 26.  This article is new and it will be a big change to Cambodian’s practice. Since the current practice, president of the court has the right to distribute case to each judge. However, article 26; paragraph 1 of CCP stipulates that the distribution of cases within a court and the order of appointment of substitute judge where there is a problem in using a particular judge [in a case] shall be determined in advance for each year by the director of that court.

After the complaint is submitted, court will start examining the complaint (Article 78).  If the complaint lacks some points, court will ask plaintiff to cure his/ her complaint.

In case plaintiff doesn't write as requirement of article75 (2), the court will ask plaintiff to cure it in appropriate time, if she/he doesn't cure such matters, the court will dismiss the complaint without prejudice by ruling, based on article 78, paragraph 1 and 2. 

Even the complaint is not written following as article 75 (3), court cannot dismiss the complaint.

2- Preparatory Proceeding for Oral argument (PPOA)

After the complaint is investigated, the court shall serve such complaint to defendant (article 79, paragraph 1). Then court set a first date of preparatory proceeding for oral argument "PPOA" (article 80, paragraph 1).The court shall set the first date of PPOA in duration of 30 days which counted from the day of submission of complaint (article 80, paragraph 2). PPOA is done in order to arrange and organize the allegations and argument of the parties, to clarify the points at issue in the case, and to organize the evidence pertaining to points at issue (article 103). It is also a step, in which, before we move to Proceeding for Oral Argument (POA).  At the PPOA, court shall be conducted on the date on which both parties can appear (article 105) and court shall respect the principle of La Contradiction, stated in article 3.  PPOA need not be opened to the public. However, the court may permit the attendance of persons determined to have good cause to be present as an observer (article 105, paragraph 2).

Article 104 (Attempt to compromise at preparatory proceedings for oral argument); at PPOA, the court shall first seek to effect a compromise settlement. It is not only PPOA that court try to compromise, but court may attempt to compromise settlement at any stage of the litigation (article 97). In PPOA court can examine documentary evidence to the extent necessary to arrange or simplify disputed issues and evidence (article 106). After PPOA conclusion, party cannot submit new offensive or defensive measure (Article 108), and court shall designate a court date for oral argument (article 113).

3- Proceeding for Oral Argument (POA)

At the first date of POA, court will ask parties to make statement about the result of PPOA (article 116, paragraph 1). POA shall be done in public (article115 paragraph, 2). The court shall guarantee parties the opportunity to attend examination of evidence (article 128, paragraph 1); and court shall respect principle of La Contradiction which stipulated in article 3. POA is an examining stage which is similarity with current practice (trial stage).

Method of examination of evidence:

1. Examination of witnesses (article132)
2. Examination of parties (article140)
3. Expert Testimony ( article 143)
4. Documentary evidence (article148)
5. Inspection (article161)

Note: in principle: if party admitted a fact, such fact doesn't need to be proved by evidence. If one fact is denied, such fact shall be proved by evidence, article 123, paragraph 2. Examination of evidence shall be carried out upon the offering of evidence by the parties, article 124, paragraph 1.

4-  Judgment  

When court concludes the oral argument, the court will issue the final judgment.

Judge shall write judgment which follow article 189 is enough.