Taking evidence abroad in the Czech Republic: documents and forms
In-house counsel running Czech litigation that touches more than one country meets the same wall: taking evidence abroad is not something the parties do themselves. A Czech court cannot summon a witness who lives outside the country, or order a foreign company to hand over a file, directly. The evidence has to travel through a formal channel, on specific documents and forms, before a Czech judge is allowed to read it. Miss the form or the deadline attached to it, and the case moves on without that evidence.
Taking evidence abroad is a formal request filed by the Czech court, not by the parties, asking a foreign authority to gather specified evidence and return it through the same channel. It runs on EU judicial-cooperation rules or an international convention, and it carries its own deadline, separate from the deadlines of the main case.
This page sets out who may file the request, the route it takes with its deadline, and the documents and forms a Czech court – or a foreign authority asking a Czech court for the same assistance – expects to see before it acts.
When does a Czech court need to take evidence abroad?
A Czech court needs to take evidence abroad whenever a witness, a document or an object relevant to the case sits outside the Czech Republic and cannot be produced voluntarily, whether the claim reached the court under a jurisdiction clause or under statutory jurisdiction.
The same mechanism runs the other way: a foreign court hearing a case that touches the Czech Republic can ask a Czech authority to take a statement, collect a document or inspect a site here, and the Czech authority then acts on it under its own procedural terms.
Three situations recur most often: a witness abroad who will not appear voluntarily, a document held by a foreign bank, land record or company that will not release it on request, and a site or an object that has to be inspected where it stands. A Czech court cannot compel any of this outside its own territory directly – it has to ask.
A request filed after the evidentiary stage of the underlying case has already closed does not simply arrive late. The court decides on what the file already contains, and a fact that was never taken cannot be restored to it afterward.
The request does not pause the main case – it runs alongside it, on its own clock.
Who may request it, and under what conditions?
The request is issued by the court hearing the case, not filed by the parties directly, though a party asks the court to issue it and drafts the questions attached. It is accepted only where the evidence is necessary, described precisely enough to act on, and located in a country reachable through the applicable channel.
A vague request – "all documents relating to the contract" rather than a named document, a named date, a named custodian – is the most common reason taking evidence abroad stalls before it even leaves the country. The wider procedural route around this stage in Czech court practice is set out in the practice covering litigation and arbitration, including how the evidentiary stage fits into the case as a whole.
Where the underlying claim sits in arbitration rather than court litigation, the same logic of specificity applies, though the channel used to reach a foreign witness or document differs and is set out separately.
A request drafted too broadly, or filed against the wrong country's channel, does not get a second attempt on the same deadline – the evidentiary stage closes on what was actually sent. LISTINA prepares the factual report on what a Czech file must contain before that request is filed – source documents, register extracts, the precise description a court will accept – delivered within five to ten working days. Representation before the court, where the matter requires it, is provided by a collaborating advocate. Write to info@listinafirm.com.
What is the route, and what is the deadline?
The route runs from the party's motion, through the court's decision to issue the request, to the foreign authority's execution and the return of what was gathered. Each stage carries its own working deadline, none of them set by agreement between the parties.
Where the request supports an interim measure rather than the main proceeding, the deadline is markedly tighter, because the measure itself is time-limited by its purpose and does not wait for the evidence to arrive.
- Witness abroad who will not appear voluntarily → Czech court issues the request to the foreign authority → foreign authority executes and returns the record → deadline runs from the court's decision, not from the motion.
- Document held by a foreign custodian → request names the document, the custodian and the date → the custodian's jurisdiction executes under its own procedure → return deadline is set by the receiving authority, not by the Czech court.
- Site inspection abroad → request names the site and the fact to be verified → local authority conducts the inspection → the report returns on the receiving country's working schedule.
- Request tied to an interim measure → court issues on an expedited basis and asks the foreign authority to prioritise → deadline is set by the measure's own duration, which does not extend to wait for the evidence.
A German supplier's Czech counsel reached the evidentiary hearing two months faster after the request for a foreign custodian's records was drafted with the exact document and date named in advance, rather than left for the foreign authority to interpret (winter 2025).
A deadline set by a foreign authority under its own procedure is not negotiable from the Czech side.
What documents and forms must the file contain?
The file that goes abroad has to stand on its own: the foreign authority executing it will not read the rest of the Czech court file, only what is attached to the request itself, so completeness at this stage is not optional.
- The court's decision to issue the request, identifying the case and the parties.
- A precise description of the evidence sought – the named witness, the named document, or the named site and the fact to be verified.
- A certified translation into the language accepted by the receiving country's authority.
- Any underlying document already in the Czech file that the foreign authority needs to act on the request.
- Confirmation of the channel used – the applicable EU instrument or the relevant international convention, depending on where the evidence sits.
Missing the translation, or attaching it in the wrong language for the receiving country, is one of the most common reasons a request for taking evidence abroad is returned unexecuted rather than merely delayed.
Assembling this file after the request has already been rejected once costs the case a second round of the same deadlines. LISTINA's factual report sets out, before the request is drafted, what the receiving country's authority will actually expect to see – the register extract, the custodian's exact designation, the form of translation – delivered within five to ten working days. Write to info@listinafirm.com.
Act now, wait, or stop: what does the file tell us?
Act now where the evidentiary stage is still open and the evidence sits in a reachable country; wait where jurisdiction itself is not yet settled; stop where the country holding the evidence has no channel available to a Czech court at all.
Wait where the underlying claim is not yet settled on jurisdiction, since a request filed before that question is resolved risks being executed for a case that later moves to a different court entirely.
Stop, and reconsider the claim's evidentiary strategy, where the country holding the evidence has no channel available to the Czech court – proceeding on a request that cannot be executed only consumes the deadline of the main case.
Before the request is filed, documents and registers can show what a receiving country's authority typically expects and what channel applies to it. They cannot show whether that authority will, in this case, treat the request as urgent, nor can they guarantee the content of what a witness will actually say once examined abroad.
An Austrian counterpart in a similar dispute discovered, once the request came back, that the custodian named in the file no longer held the documents – they had been transferred to a different entity two years earlier, a fact the register would have shown before the request was ever filed (autumn 2025).
The wider question of what happens to evidence and claims once a debtor becomes insolvent across borders is addressed separately, in the report on cross-border insolvency and what secured creditors recover, and the procedural route for evidence in a seated arbitration is set out in the note on what the court file shows in arbitration seated in Prague.
A request that cannot be executed does not fail quietly – it consumes the same deadline as one that succeeds.
Frequently asked questions
Who may file taking evidence abroad?
The court hearing the case issues the request; a party does not file it directly but asks the court to do so and typically drafts the specific questions or the description of the document sought. The court reviews the request before it goes to the foreign authority.
What is filed with it?
The court's decision to issue the request, a precise description of the evidence sought, a certified translation into the language accepted by the receiving authority, and any underlying document the foreign authority needs to act on it.
What is the deadline?
The deadline is set by the stage of the underlying case and, separately, by the receiving country's own procedure once the request has been sent. Where the request supports an interim measure, the working deadline is markedly shorter than in the main proceeding.
Why is it rejected?
Most often because the evidence sought is described too broadly for the receiving authority to act on, or because the translation supplied does not match the language that authority requires. A rejected request does not automatically restart the underlying deadline.
LISTINA produces factual reports from documents and public registers. It does not provide legal advice and does not represent parties. Where a matter requires representation before a Czech court or authority, it is handled by a collaborating advocate.
A dispute that needs evidence from abroad does not get a second run at a missed deadline. LISTINA delivers the factual report on what the receiving country's file must contain – the register extract, the precise description, the translation requirement – within five to ten working days. Representation before the court, where needed, is provided by a collaborating advocate. Write to info@listinafirm.com.