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The French PI Revolution

Sep 08, 2021

The French Private Investigator Revolution



Private Investigators are legally permitted to investigate in France for civil, commercial and administration. Not only this but at the conclusion of proceedings in France you can claim the costs of the private investigator as part of normal costs recovery. 

Due to several reforms of the French Criminal Procedure in 1998, Private Investigator were officially regnosied as being able to assist Lawyer in France.

mxaimilien jazani, pi

The man we have to thank for these provisions in pictured left, Maximilien Jazani. Originally joining in 1997 the Association of Business Lawyers and then appointed as President of the Human Rights Comission of the Association, at the time, now working in other roles. He successfully petitioned for in the 4th amendment to the code a change which allowed Lawyers to legally utilise Private Investigators.


Resulting in the use of PI's in the French legal system officially.

If only we took a hint from the French legislators and starting regulating Private Investigators in the UK, we may have a more professional, efficient system in place.



Legislation and penal code changes like these are a pivotal part of how we can operate legally as Private Investigators. Unfortunately in the UK we still lack basic provision and there has been a lack of useful civil tort cases for where the law stands in a lot of situation. As such we continue on in the hopes of having our own Maximilien, hopefully soon.

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The penal code review in France which made Private Investigator use in civil proceedings legal.
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