Legal Writing and Professional Skills
What is tested
Drafting and reasoning: the structure of enforcement documents, formal requirements of filings and decisions, and clear legal argument. Marks are lost on form as often as on substance.
Core rules
- A filing under § 42 OSŘ must identify the court or exekutor, the parties, the matter and the request, and must be signed and dated. A návrh na nařízení exekuce (Art. 38 EŘ) must name the exekutor, the parties, the exekuční titul, the claim with its amount and maturity, and the proposed method of execution.
- An exekuční příkaz (Art. 49 EŘ) states the parties, the exact order (what and how much), the method of execution and the instruction on remedies. The pověření identifies the case and the authorised exekutor and is delivered with the first act.
- Enforceability must be documented: attach the doložka vykonatelnosti to the title, otherwise the filing cannot succeed.
- Style: Czech, precise, no adjectives where a number is required; amounts in figures and words, unambiguous dates, provisions cited in full (section, paragraph, letter, act number), every assertion tied to an exhibit.
- Legal reasoning: facts, subsumption under the rule, interpretation (linguistic, systematic, teleological), conclusion, and an answer to the strongest counter-argument.
- Professional skills: mlčenlivost and GDPR when handling personal data, careful redaction, courteous correspondence, and a properly kept file.
Worked example
Drafting an order for wage deductions. The title is a judgment for CZK 60,000 plus costs, and the employer is known. The operative part reads: the employer is ordered, from the first payday following delivery of this order, to make deductions from the debtor's wage in favour of the creditor and remit them to the exekutor's account until the claim is satisfied. The order states the calculation basis, the dependants taken into account and the employer's notification duties. A wrong account number, a missing amount or a missing file number delays the case and costs marks.
Traps
Omitting the doložka vykonatelnosti; vague or unsubstantiated amounts; citing a provision without the act number; forgetting the signature, date or file number; treating an unconfirmed draft protocol as evidence.