Form C - Answer Form

• Date: 19 February 2019

EUROPEAN SMALL CLAIMS PROCEDURE

FORM C

ANSWER FORM

(Article 5(2) and 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 861 /2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a

European Small Claims Procedure)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES FOR THE DEFENDANT

A claim as set out in the attached claim form has been submitted against you using the European Small Claims Procedure.

You can answer by filling in Part II of this form and returning it to the court/tribunal, or in any other appropriate way, within 30

days after the claim form has been served on you together with the answer form.

Please note that if you do not answer within 30 days, the court/tribunal shall give a judgment.

Please make sure that you write your name clearly and sign and date the answer form at the end.

You should also read the guidelines included in the claim form; these may help you to prepare your response.

Assistance in filling in the form

You may benefit from assistance in filling in this form. To find out how to obtain such assistance, you may refer to the

information provided by the Member States and published on the website of the European Judicial Atlas in civil and

commercial matters, available at the European e-Justice Portal https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_small_claims-354-en.do.

Please note that this assistance does not include legal aid, for which appropriate application must be made under national

law; nor does it include a legal assessment of your case.

Language: You should reply to the claim in the language of the court/tribunal which has sent you this form.

Please note that the form is available in all official languages of the institutions of the European Union on the European e-

Justice Portal https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_small_claims-177-en.do. This may help you in filling in the form in the

required language.

Oral hearing

: Please note that the European Small Claims Procedure is a written procedure. However the court may decide to

have an oral hearing if it considers that it is not possible to give the judgment on the basis of written evidence. You can

request, in this form or at a later stage, that an oral hearing be held. The court may refuse your request if it considers, in the

light of the circumstances of the case, that an oral hearing is not necessary for the fair conduct of the proceedings. The oral

hearing should be carried out through appropriate distance communication means, like videoconference or teleconference,

provided that they are available to the court. If the person to be heard is domiciled in a Member State other than that of the

court seised, a hearing by distance communication technology shall be arranged by making use of the procedures provided

for in Council Regulation (EC) No 1206/2001

(https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_taking_of_evidence-76-en.do)

However the court may decide that the persons summoned for the hearing must be physically present. You can indicate your

preferences to the court, bearing in mind, that if you requested to be physically present at the hearing, the recovery of any

costs incurred with regard to this presence is subject to the rules of Article 16 of Regulation (EC) No 861/2007 establishing a

European Small Claims Procedure. This Article stipulates that the court shall not award to the successful party costs that

were unnecessarily incurred or are disproportionate to the claim.

Supporting documents

: You can indicate possible means of evidence, and add, where appropriate, supporting documents.

Counterclaim: If you want to make a claim against the claimant (counterclaim), you should fill in and attach a separate Form A

which you can find on the internet on the European e-Justice Portal https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_small_claims_forms-

177-en.do or obtain from the court/tribunal which sent you this form. Please note that for the purposes of the counterclaim you

are considered to be the claimant.

Correcting your details

: You can also correct or supplement information about yourself (e.g. contact details, representative

etc.) in section 6 ‘Other information’.

Service of documents and communication with the court: Procedural documents, like your response and the judgment may be

served upon the parties by post or by electronic means, if such means are technically available to the court and admissible in

accordance with the procedural law of the Member State in which the procedure is conducted. If the documents are to be

served in a Member State other than the one in which the procedure is conducted, the procedural rules of the Member State

where service is to be effected have to be observed as well. Electronic means could be used also for other written

communications (e.g. a request to attend a court hearing). Electronic means can be used only if the addressee expressly

consents in advance to their use or if he/she is legally obliged to accept electronic service and/or other written communication

from the court in accordance with the procedural rules of the Member State in which the addressee is domiciled. To see if

electronic means of service and/or communication are available and admissible in the relevant Member States check the

information on the European e-justice portal at

https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_small_claims-354-en.do?clang=en

Extra space: If space is insufficient, you can add additional sheets.

1 4Generated by the European e-Justice Portal