English-speaking criminal defence lawyer in France
Paris & New York Bars · Criminal defence
Arrested, questioned by the police, summoned to court or held in a French prison? Hugo Zerbib is a criminal lawyer admitted to the Paris and New York Bars. He acts at every stage of French criminal proceedings, anywhere in France, in French, English and Spanish.
Free from anywhere in the world. The message opens ready to send — you only add your first name and the city where it is happening.
Someone has just been arrested. What matters in the first hours
- You have the right to remain silent. Nothing obliges you to answer questions. Staying silent is not an admission of anything, but everything you do say is written down and can be used later.
- You have the right to a lawyer of your own choosing from the very first hour of police custody, including a confidential interview before the first questioning.
- You have the right to a free interpreter if you do not speak French well enough to follow what is happening.
- Have a relative call the firm. A person in custody cannot make calls freely: in practice it is almost always a family member, a partner or an employer who reaches a lawyer.
The firm
Hugo Zerbib read law at the University of Paris II – Panthéon-Assas, where he completed a Master’s degree in criminal law and criminology with honours. He then studied American criminal procedure at Boston University before passing the New York Bar examination.
He has practised criminal law since 2021, beginning with two years of training under Steeve Ruben at Ruben & Associés, then within his own practice founded in 2023 and dedicated exclusively to criminal defence. Since 2023 he has also sat on the admissions board of the entrance examination to the regional bar training school.
The firm acts throughout the whole of France — police stations and gendarmeries, correctional courts, assize courts, investigating judges, courts of appeal, sentence enforcement courts and prison disciplinary boards — and takes urgent matters. Files are handled in French, English and Spanish, without a translator between you and your lawyer.
21 rue de Miromesnil, 75008 Paris
Before any court in France
French, English, Spanish
Free, and commits you to nothing
Choose your situation
Select a stage of the procedure below. Each one is the content of the corresponding French page, in English.
The police stage
The prosecutor’s decision
The routes to court
Custody and its alternatives
Sentences and afterwards
For families
Voluntary police interview
audition libre
In short
You are questioned by a judicial police officer as a suspect, but you are not in custody. The summons may be written or purely verbal — by telephone or text message — and it is valid either way. You stay free to leave the room at any moment, and that single difference changes everything about the situation.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Your rights are notified before any question: the offence alleged with its presumed date and place, your right to leave, your right to remain silent, your right to a lawyer and to an interpreter.
- The questioning itself. There is no statutory maximum length.
- You re-read the written record (procès-verbal) before signing it. No copy is given to you.
- The record travels with the file all the way to the court. Depending on the prosecutor’s decision it can lead to the case being closed, to an alternative to prosecution, to a further summons, to a correctional hearing, to a guilty-plea procedure or to a judicial investigation.
What the lawyer does
Your lawyer has no access to the file before a voluntary interview, so the preparation rests entirely on what you bring: analysing the alleged facts, anticipating the questions, deciding question by question whether to answer or to stay silent, identifying favourable material — an alibi, witnesses, documents — and having observations written into the record itself.
Is this your situation right now?
Police custody
garde à vue
In short
Police custody deprives you of your liberty while the investigation is carried out. Unlike a voluntary interview, you cannot leave. It is the moment where the largest number of irreversible things happen, and the moment where a lawyer is most useful.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- You must be told what you are suspected of and what your rights are, from the moment the measure starts.
- Those rights: informing a relative or your employer, being examined by a doctor at any time, being assisted free of charge by an interpreter, remaining silent, and being assisted by a lawyer from the first hour.
- Your lawyer sees you alone for thirty minutes before the first interview, then attends each interview.
- At the end, the prosecutor decides: close the file, release you without immediate prosecution while the investigation continues, release you with a summons for a later hearing, or have you brought before him the same day.
What the lawyer does
Beyond the confidential interview and attendance at questioning, the lawyer checks that what you actually said is what the record says, and checks that the conditions of custody are respected — access to food, water, toilets and sufficient rest. Nobody else in the room is going to do either for you.
Is this your situation right now?
Being brought before the prosecutor
défèrement
In short
At the end of police custody you are taken from the police station to the courthouse and presented to the public prosecutor. It is not automatic: the prosecutor decides. Those few hours determine which procedure follows, and the choice is not entirely fixed before the presentation takes place.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Immediate trial — the file is considered ready and you are tried the same day or the following morning.
- Deferred appearance (law of 23 March 2019, article 397-1-1) — the conditions for an immediate trial are met but the case is not ready. The liberty and custody judge may order judicial supervision, electronic monitoring or pre-trial detention, and the hearing must take place within two months at the most.
- Summons by official record with judicial supervision (article 394, known as CPVCJ) — a hearing between ten days and six months later, with a restraining measure in the meantime.
- Guilty plea procedure (CRPC) — the prosecutor proposes a sentence, to be approved by a judge the same day if you accept it.
- Judicial investigation — for complex or serious cases, an investigating judge is seised. After a first questioning you may be placed under formal investigation, together with judicial supervision or, after appearing before the liberty and custody judge, pre-trial detention.
What the lawyer does
This is the highest-value hour of the whole procedure. Evidence of stable circumstances and guarantees of appearance, brought at this precise moment, can move the case from an immediate trial to a summons months later.
Is this your situation right now?
Immediate trial
comparution immédiate
In short
You leave police custody, you are presented to the prosecutor, you spend a few hours in the courthouse cells and you are tried the same afternoon or evening. It is the shortest timetable in French criminal procedure and the one where the gap between a prepared and an unprepared defence is widest.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- You may ask for the hearing to be postponed so that your defence can be prepared. The court cannot refuse.
- What postponement buys: access to the file, time to gather employment records, medical evidence, character references and proof of a stable address.
- What it costs: the court may order pre-trial detention, or place you under judicial supervision, until the new date. Weighing the two is the central decision of the day and it is taken after reading the file.
- The court can order an acquittal, day-fines, community service, a suspended or probationary sentence, electronic monitoring, or imprisonment.
What the lawyer does
Reading the file in the short window before the hearing, deciding on postponement with you rather than for you, and arguing the sentence itself: in this procedure the choice between prison, electronic monitoring and a probation order is often what the hearing turns on.
Is this your situation right now?
Guilty plea procedure
CRPC
In short
The prosecutor proposes a sentence to someone who admits the facts, and a judge approves it, without a full correctional hearing. It is quicker. It is not automatically more lenient: accepting means admitting guilt and accepting the sentence that comes with it.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- You are summoned before the prosecutor with your lawyer. This is the negotiation stage.
- A sentence is proposed. You may accept it, refuse it, or take time to think — up to ten days. Refusing is neither an admission of guilt nor an aggravating circumstance.
- If you accept, an approval hearing is held before a judge, usually the same day.
- The judge approves or refuses. A refusal sends the case to the correctional court and leaves the presumption of innocence intact.
What the lawyer does
Analysis of the file and of the comparative risk of each route; discussion of the amount of the sentence and of its form — fine, community service, day-fines, simple suspension, probation order, electronic monitoring from the outset; and the point most often missed, negotiating an exemption from entry on bulletin no. 2 of the criminal record, which can limit the professional consequences.
Is this your situation right now?
Correctional court hearing
audience correctionnelle
In short
The tribunal correctionnel judges offences classified as délits — those punishable by imprisonment. Hearings are public, unless the court orders closed doors where publicity would be dangerous for order or for the serenity of the debates.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Identity check: name, date and place of birth, address.
- The President states the facts alleged, the applicable texts, and your right to speak, to answer or to remain silent.
- Argument on nullities — procedural defects — which must be raised before any defence on the merits.
- The report: the facts as they appear from the investigation. Then questions to the defendant, followed by witnesses and civil parties.
- Submissions: the civil party’s lawyer, then the prosecutor, then the defence. The defendant always has the last word.
- Deliberation, and the decision.
What the lawyer does
Preparing the file and the questions, raising procedural defects in time, calling and examining witnesses, arguing on the facts and, in the alternative, on the sentence.
Is this your situation right now?
Judicial investigation
instruction
In short
For complex or serious cases, the prosecutor hands the file to an investigating judge, who directs the investigation independently. It lasts months, sometimes years — and unlike the fast-track procedures, it leaves real room to influence the outcome from the inside.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- A first appearance before the investigating judge, at which you may remain silent, make a spontaneous statement or answer questions, assisted by your lawyer. It is at the end of this appearance that you are placed under formal investigation.
- Where a restraining measure is sought, an adversarial hearing before the liberty and custody judge, which can end in pre-trial detention, judicial supervision or release.
- Further interrogations of the person under investigation.
- Confrontations between the people involved.
- Reconstructions of the events.
- Rogatory commissions given to investigators: searches, seizures, interviews.
- Expert reports — psychiatric, ballistic, DNA and others.
What the lawyer does
Access to the file, applications for investigative steps and for expert evidence, challenges to procedural defects, and the running argument on detention or supervision throughout — each of which shapes the file that will eventually reach the trial court.
Is this your situation right now?
Pre-trial detention
détention provisoire
In short
Pre-trial detention is a precautionary measure, not a punishment: the person is presumed innocent. It can only rest on grounds listed by law — preserving evidence, preventing pressure on witnesses or victims, preventing collusion between the people involved, protecting the person under investigation, guaranteeing that they will appear before the court, and stopping or preventing the offence being repeated. A seventh ground, exceptional disturbance to public order, applies only to the most serious crimes and not to délits. Each ground relied on must be concrete and individualised — not a formula.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- An application for release can be made at any time by the detained person or by the lawyer.
- The investigating judge transmits it to the liberty and custody judge if he does not grant it himself.
- That judge rules within three working days.
- A refusal can be appealed to the investigation chamber within ten days. The placement order itself can also be appealed within ten days of notification.
What the lawyer does
Three alternatives are argued in the alternative to detention: judicial supervision, electronic monitoring, and guarantees of appearance — a deposit, a surrendered passport, employment, a stable address. Assembling that documentation early is what makes the argument possible at all.
Is this your situation right now?
Judicial supervision
contrôle judiciaire
In short
Judicial supervision is a constraint applied to someone who is otherwise left at liberty. It is the main alternative to pre-trial detention, and the obligations attached to it are chosen case by case.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Staying within a defined area, or a ban on leaving the country.
- Conditions on leaving your home, and bans on going to certain places.
- Reporting regularly to a police station or gendarmerie.
- Surrendering your identity papers or passport.
- A ban on driving any vehicle not fitted with an electronic breath-alcohol ignition interlock.
- A ban on contacting named people.
- Medical treatment or care obligations.
- A financial deposit (cautionnement).
- Restrictions on a professional or social activity.
- Informing the judge or the prosecutor of any journey beyond defined limits.
- Answering summonses from any designated authority and submitting to checks on employment, training and social or educational measures.
What the lawyer does
An application to modify the obligations is made to the registry of the competent court — investigating judge, correctional court or investigation chamber. Where an obligation has become impossible to comply with, that application is the route to take, and the appeal deadlines above are short.
Is this your situation right now?
Electronic monitoring
ARSE et DDSE
In short
The ankle tag covers two very different measures. Before judgment it is an alternative to pre-trial detention; after conviction it is a way of serving the sentence at home. Confusing the two leads to bad expectations about what the time actually counts for.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Stable accommodation. You do not need to own it — rented, or living with someone else, is enough.
- The agreement of the people living at the address.
- Reintegration guarantees: employment, training, medical care, family ties.
- A coherent and justified schedule of authorised absences.
What the lawyer does
Building the file: accommodation, employer, schedule, letters of support, and the documents that make the schedule credible. Anticipating the objections the prosecution will raise, arguing it before the judge who decides, and intervening urgently where revocation is sought or the measure becomes impossible to comply with.
Is this your situation right now?
Suspended sentence and probation
sursis simple et sursis probatoire
In short
A simple suspension holds the prison sentence in reserve without imposing anything: there is no supervision, no obligation, nothing to do but avoid a new offence. After five years without a further custodial conviction it becomes void (non avenu). A probation order is a different regime: it attaches obligations, supervised for one to three years by the sentence enforcement judge and the probation service. Everything below concerns the probation order.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Answering summonses from the judge and the probation service.
- Receiving visits from the probation service and providing the documents and information asked for.
- Notifying any change of employment.
- Reporting any change of address, and any absence of more than fifteen days.
- Obtaining authorisation before a relevant change of job or home.
- Informing the judge in advance of any travel abroad.
What the lawyer does
Revocation comes by two routes: the sentence enforcement judge after an adversarial hearing — who may impose nothing, extend the probation, or revoke in part or in full — or the correctional court on a new offence, which must seek the opinion of the sentence enforcement judge without being bound by it, and in which case the revoked sentence is added to the new one. Obligations can also be modified during the probation period, on the application of the convicted person or of the prosecutor.
Is this your situation right now?
Sentence adjustment
aménagement de peine
In short
A prison sentence does not always mean prison. Adjustment lets the sentence be served outside strict detention, under conditions. It is often what is really at stake once the judgment itself is final.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Electronic monitoring at home (DDSE).
- Semi-liberty — out during the day for work or training, back at night.
- External placement.
- Conditional release.
What the lawyer does
Building a solid and credible file, putting together a coherent reintegration plan, arguing it at the adversarial hearing before the sentence enforcement judge, and making sure the deadlines and the legal criteria are met.
Is this your situation right now?
The criminal record
casier judiciaire
In short
A French conviction is not necessarily permanent on the record. Bulletin no. 2 is the one that matters in practice: it is accessible to certain administrations and to employers in the public sector, in security and in transport — and it can be cleared early.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- A written application is sent to the public prosecutor.
- It must show a disproportionate prejudice and the need for reintegration.
- The correctional court hears the matter in closed session and rules.
What the lawyer does
The outcome depends on how solid the arguments in the application are and on the position taken by the convicted person at the hearing. The lawyer drafts the application, structures what the entry actually costs you, and argues it before the correctional court.
Is this your situation right now?
A relative held in a French prison
un proche en détention
In short
When a relative is imprisoned there are several ways of keeping in touch and of giving practical or moral support. Four of them can be started straight away.
Key facts
How it unfolds
- Sentence final — apply to the director of the prison.
- Case under judicial investigation — apply to the investigating judge at the judicial court.
- Awaiting an immediate trial or a correctional hearing — apply to the public prosecutor.
- Assize court, criminal court or appeal — apply to the prosecutor general at the court of appeal.
What the lawyer does
Where a permit is refused, the written reasons can be requested, the file completed, and a hierarchical appeal lodged — or, where the person is in pre-trial detention, an appeal before the investigation chamber. The lawyer can also apply directly to the investigating judge to make access easier for the family. The firm visits clients in custody and acts before the sentence enforcement judge on release and sentence adjustment. Detailed pages exist for Fleury-Mérogis, Fresnes, Nanterre, Paris-La Santé, Villepinte, Bois-d’Arcy, Meaux-Chauconin, Osny and Orléans-Saran, and the firm acts before establishments across France.
Is this your situation right now?
Each card opens a full explanation: what the stage is, the figures and deadlines that apply, how it unfolds, and what a lawyer actually does at that point.
Fees and first contact
The first appointment at the firm is free, quick and commits you to nothing. It is there to discuss your situation and the terms of any instruction before you decide anything.
Fees are not billed by the hour but as a fixed fee: a global amount agreed for a defined engagement, with no surprises during the proceedings. The amount depends on the nature of the procedure, the complexity of the file, the number of hearings and the work involved. Payment can be staged, in line with the milestones of the procedure.
Many people hold legal expenses insurance — through a home insurance contract, a car policy or a bank card — which may cover part or all of a lawyer’s fees. It is worth checking before you assume you cannot afford representation.
Frequently asked questions
Can I have a lawyer during police custody in France?
Yes. You are entitled to a lawyer from the first hour of custody, and you may choose that lawyer yourself. You are entitled to a confidential thirty-minute interview before the first questioning, and your lawyer may attend every interview and confrontation.
Do I need to speak French to defend myself?
No. You are entitled to a free interpreter at every stage where you do not understand what is being said or written. Working with a lawyer who speaks your language changes something different: it lets you discuss strategy directly, without a third person in the room.
What usually happens at the end of police custody?
The public prosecutor decides. He may close the case, release you with a summons for a later hearing, propose a guilty-plea procedure, have you tried the same day, or open a judicial investigation. The decision is often taken within a very short window, which is why being represented before it is taken matters.
I live abroad. Can you act for me if I cannot travel to France?
It depends on the procedure. Your presence is compulsory at certain hearings and not at others, and the position is different again for victims and for defendants. The firm will tell you clearly which applies to your case before you make travel arrangements.
Can I leave France while proceedings are ongoing?
Not necessarily. A judicial supervision order frequently includes surrender of your passport or a ban on leaving the country. Where no such measure applies, you may still be required to attend hearings. Never assume you may travel without checking the exact terms of the decision made in your case.
A relative has been arrested and I have no information. What can I do?
Call the firm with whatever you have: the name, the date and place of the arrest, the police station involved. A lawyer can identify where the person is being held and at what stage of the procedure, and can be instructed while custody is still running.
Does the firm act outside Paris?
Yes. The office is in Paris but the practice covers the whole of France, before any court and any prison.
Has someone just been arrested in France?
Do you have a court date and no one to explain it?
The firm answers by telephone, text message and WhatsApp, including outside office hours. The first contact is free and commits you to nothing.
WhatsApp — write in EnglishCall +33 6 60 77 21 21Text message
Hugo Zerbib — Attorney at law, Paris and New York Bars · 21 rue de Miromesnil, 75008 Paris · +33 6 60 77 21 21 · hz@zerbib-avocat.fr