Avocat à la Cour (a French lawyer) · Barreau de Paris (Paris Bar)
Complaint, conciliation, chambre disciplinaire (the professional body’s disciplinary tribunal): the defence is prepared from the very first letter.
A complaint against a healthcare professional follows the timetable of the ordre (the French professional regulatory body). Each stage has its own time limit, and your written reply is already part of the case file.
Reply within 2 hours on working days · Aide juridictionnelle (legal aid) accepted
First things to do
- Do not answer the complaint on your own — your written reply will be read by the tribunal.
- Assemble the file — the medical records, the exchanges with the patient, the chronology of the facts.
- Prepare the conciliation as you would a hearing: many complaints go no further.
Doctors, dental surgeons, midwives, pharmacists, nurses, physiotherapists, chiropodists and podiatrists.
Has a complaint been registered? Timetable for the medical professions; comparable rules apply to the other professional bodies.
1 month
Summons to the conciliation, running from registration of the complaint with the conseil départemental (the departmental council of the professional body) (art. L. 4123-2 of the code de la santé publique)
3 months
Referral of the complaint to the chambre disciplinaire de première instance (the disciplinary tribunal of first instance) where conciliation fails (art. L. 4123-2)
30 days
Appeal to the chambre disciplinaire nationale (the national disciplinary tribunal), running from notification of the decision (art. R. 4126-44)
2 months
Appeal on a point of law to the Conseil d’État (France’s supreme administrative court) (art. R. 4126-48)
5 months
Maximum duration of an immediate suspension ordered by the director general of the ARS (the regional health agency) where there is serious danger (art. L. 4113-14)
What is your situation
One page per stage, from the complaint to the Conseil d’État
Six situations cover the bulk of professional-body cases. Each has its own tribunal and its own time limit.
Conciliation within 1 month
A patient or a fellow practitioner has lodged a complaint (in French)
Conciliation before the conseil départemental is not a formality: it is the first place where the defence is made.
First instance
I have been summoned before the chambre disciplinaire
Written investigation, hearing, sanctions ranging from a warning to removal from the register: the procedure has rules of its own.
Appeal 30 days
I have been sanctioned at first instance
The appeal to the chambre disciplinaire nationale retries the case on the facts and on the law.
5 months at most
The ARS has suspended me as a matter of urgency
Immediate suspension where there is serious danger: limited duration, a hearing within three days, a challenge within 48 hours.
Section des assurances sociales
The health insurance fund is bringing proceedings against me
A separate tribunal with sanctions of its own: a ban on treating insured patients, and repayment of the sums received.
Time limit 2 months
Registration, transfer, removal from the register: a dispute with the ordre
The administrative decisions of the conseils de l’ordre (the councils of the professional body) are challenged by routes of their own.
Online consultation
Summoned before your chambre disciplinaire?
The defence is prepared from the complaint onwards, not at the hearing. Send over the complaint and the summons: once payment has been made, you upload your documents and the lawyer replies to you, by telephone or in writing. The fee is deducted from the fixed fee if the case is subsequently entrusted to the Firm.