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Some friends have a need to discuss a problem with a notaire (and possibly later with an avocat). Their French is limited, and to have the discussion in French through an intermediary (friend or otherwise) can be dodgy.

Does anyone know of, or has used a notaire in this area who is able (and willing) to discuss a legal problem in English.
I know of one or two notaires who use English a little when conducting house sales/purchases, but legal/civil problems are a different matter.

DavidB

ps
For RogerO (in the Aude).....should you ever need the services of an English-speaking notaire in the Carcassonne region, I know of one who's English is superb.....and he does a good job.

Your friends will be very lucky if they find a notaire who will deal with them in english only on an official level.The best thing would be to find a lawyer in perps(there are a few whom speak english,I do not have the address right now).

DavidB wrote:For RogerO (in the Aude).....should you ever need the services of an English-speaking notaire in the Carcassonne region, I know of one who's English is superb.....and he does a good job.

Thank you David but I am fluent enough in French for most situations, having lived in France since 1994 - and my wife Annaïck (we are married since 1981) is French (bretonne, from Concarneau) so we are OK..

Outie wrote: Your friends will be very lucky if they find a notaire who will deal with them in english only on an official level.

Yes, I think you're probably right, it's all a question of how professionally rock-solid the notaire feels dealing in another language.
Still....it's worth asking the question.
Buying and selling a house is different, they can probably do it in their sleep...and some probably do!
DavidB.

I think,as Outie says, most notaires will not conduct any official business (eg the signing of the "actes") in anything other than French.

But there are many notaires who are perfectly happy to conduct any "off the record" meetings/advice in English,assuming they are confident enough to do it. There are 3 I know of in Perpignan.

There are a couple of English speaking notaires on this page David - both in Perpignan - or Stephen Smith who is a French property law specialist (if it's to do with property) and will presumably deal over the net/on phone

Kate does the chap Mr Smith practise law in France ie his he a french registered lawyer or just an expert/specialist?

Registered bilingual lawyer in both France and England as far as I know. Having said that, this is not a recommendation as such as I don't know him - he just sends me legal articles occasionally and seems to know what he is talking about!

http://www.stephensmithfranceltd.com/

Our notaire in Ceret spoke perfect english. Maitre Pujila but we have only used him for our house purchase.

Kate the only reason I ask is that many"specialists" are english based(as is Mr Smith if his web site is anything to go by) with french partners here in France,There are very very few that can legally work and pratice both in the UK and France.
There is a really big firm in manchester that we started to use when we bought our first house in thiur,they were specialists in french law but not french lawyers but they had partners in France,which meant two sets of charges which we soon caught on to and stopped the ones in the UK.

Hi

These Notaires : www.the-languedoc-page.com/property/notaires.htm
have registered with the notaires web site that they speak English.

Peter

Ah - that's interesting. Something worth checking on for people using British legal advisors etc.

the notaires we used were garrigue-daniemel on the road from Amelie les Bains to Arles sur Tech. Agnes Barbier who is the solicitors clerk, speaks perfect English, Spanish, Catalan and French and she did all our work in English with us, but the final paperwork of course is in French. they did had the name of an interpreter if we had needed it.

The particular problem concerned with my original post is not property-related....more to do with a civil law situation.

Thanks for your input, everyone, I'll follow up on your lists as things develop.

DavidB.

any notaire should be able to cover both conveyancing and civil law. we could have had a will drawn up by the notaire in amelie. good luck anyway

Hi, could you give me their details please?

I'm am after an English speaking notaire to sell a house near Carcassonne, all recommendations greatly received.

Also are their fees still 7pc of asking price?

Try this guy. Very good reputation - tho not cheap, same as them all I think.
https://anglophone-direct.com/listing/a ... ng-lawyer/