Commissaire de justice (bailiff): answering tense callers, debtors and creditors alike

Huissiers de justice (bailiffs) and commissaires-priseurs judiciaires (court-appointed auctioneers) merged on 1 July 2022 into a single profession, that of commissaire de justice, according to the Ministry of Justice. This change results from ordinance no. 2016-728 of 2 June 2016 on the status of commissaire de justice. Commissaires de justice are public and ministerial officers (officiers publics et ministériels) and carry out, among other tasks, the serving of legal documents, the enforcement of court decisions, formal reports of fact (constats) and amicable debt collection.

On callers’ lips, the word “huissier” is still common: a reception service, human or automated, must understand the two terms as equivalent, without correcting the caller or implying they have the wrong number. Nor should you assume that the caller knows what the office does: a document received, a letter, a message from a creditor is enough to trigger the call.

Four main situations recur: the recipient of a document who does not understand what they have received, the debtor who is frightened or wants to negotiate, the creditor asking where their file stands, and the third party (employer, neighbour, relative) calling on behalf of someone else. Each needs a different response, and in every case tone matters as much as content.

A few rules are essential: speak calmly, never raise your voice or apply pressure, reword the request using the caller’s own words, avoid curt administrative phrases. A sentence such as “I understand this letter worries you; I am taking your request and a colleague will call you back” can defuse more than a technical explanation.

Write two or three standard sentences, reviewed by the office’s commissaires de justice, that everyone uses in the same way: one to acknowledge the request, one to announce the callback, one to say what reception cannot do. A common wording avoids unintended promises and contradictory answers depending on who picks up.

General information can be given: the office’s address, opening hours, ways of sending a document, usual callback times. By contrast, the contents of a file (amount, state of a procedure, name of the creditor or debtor) are not shared with a caller whose identity and capacity have not been verified. As a precaution, a reception service with no access to the file does not even confirm that a case exists: it takes the contact details and the reference shown on the letter, then has the authorised person call back.

Anything resembling legal advice is excluded: telling a debtor whether they should pay or contest, assessing limitation periods, explaining remedies, promising a payment schedule. The Institut national de la consommation (INC, France’s national consumer institute) recalls that a debtor can contest a debt in writing and ask the creditor directly for staggered payments: these steps are discussed with the competent person at the office or with an adviser, not with reception.

In the amicable phase, the INC lists among the abuses presenting debt-collection letters as those of a commissaire de justice acting as an officer of the court (a practice it describes as illegal), the use of threatening terms such as “wage garnishment” (saisie de rémunération) when no seizure is possible at that stage, and pressure put on the debtor’s circle; it also recalls everyone’s right to respect for their private life. A commissaire de justice’s reception, which speaks on behalf of a public officer, must be particularly careful about clarity: say what kind of call it is, who is speaking, and what the office can or cannot do at that stage.

The Chambre nationale des commissaires de justice (the profession’s national body) states that amicable recovery can take place through electronic, telephone or postal exchanges, before, if necessary, the court phase. In every case, reception is not the place to negotiate or threaten: it notes, directs and hands over.

A caller in distress, who is crying or threatening, must be put through to a person at the office as quickly as possible, or called back by them at a precise time. Define handover criteria in advance: mention of a hearing, a seizure, an eviction, a risk to a person, an explicit request for a human. Write them down, review them with the team, test them.

After the call, leave a useful record: reason, contact details, reference of the letter, callback time announced, the caller’s emotional state if it helps the colleague prepare their reply. A three-line note avoids making an already distressed person tell the whole story again.

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