Iran Nezam Civil Execution Exam common mistakes
Iran Nezam Civil Execution Exam · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
When a judgment-debtor objects that the execution is time-barred, the candidate treats the objection as a procedural irregularity and sends it to the execution office for a decision, instead of recognising that a plea of prescription (مرور زمان) of the enforcement of a final judgment is a matter for the court, and drafting the response as if the executing officer could dismiss it.
Study habits from civil procedure treat most execution complaints as administrative matters handled by the دایره اجرا, and candidates memorise the list of objections without sorting which body decides each one. The result is a default reflex: everything goes to the execution office.
What to do instead
Build a two-column table for every execution objection you meet: 'decided by executing officer' versus 'decided by court'. For each, write the statutory basis and the form of the ruling. Practise drafting one short decision for each column so the correct forum becomes automatic.
In a claim for annulment of a notarial deed of sale, the candidate argues the substantive contract is void while ignoring that the deed has been registered and that the claim must first address the registration and the protection of a bona fide third party, and drafts the prayer for relief (خواسته) only as 'annulment of the deed' without asking for cancellation of the registration.
Candidates separate registration law from civil law in their heads and revise each in isolation. Because the exam tests them as separate subjects, the links between a registered deed, ownership transfer, and the remedy sought are rarely rehearsed.
What to do instead
For every deed-related problem, run a fixed checklist: is the deed official or ordinary, registered or not, is there a bona fide third party, what is the correct remedy (annulment, cancellation of registration, or claim of ownership), and what is the exact wording of the خواسته. Write out the checklist in the answer itself where the question invites reasoning.
When asked to classify a person as a merchant (تاجر), the candidate answers only that the person 'does business' and omits the statutory test of habitual professional transactions (معاملات تجاری) and the consequence that a shopkeeper selling goods produced by others may or may not be a merchant depending on the nature of the activity.
Merchant status is studied early and revised superficially, so candidates remember the word 'habitual' but not the enumerated commercial acts or the exclusion of certain activities. Under time pressure they default to a one-line definition.
What to do instead
Memorise the enumerated commercial acts and, for each, write one concrete example and one counter-example of a non-merchant. Then practise a five-line classification answer that states the test, applies it to the facts, and states the consequences (commercial books, bankruptcy jurisdiction).
On a bankruptcy question, the candidate confuses the date of cessation of payments (توقف) with the date of the bankruptcy adjudication and applies the suspect-period rules (معاملات تفضیلی) from the wrong date, or treats all pre-bankruptcy transactions as void rather than distinguishing void, voidable, and valid transactions.
The rules are a cluster of dates and categories that look similar in Persian terminology. Candidates memorise the labels but not the timeline, so they attach the right rule to the wrong date.
What to do instead
Draw a timeline for every bankruptcy problem: date of توقف, date of filing, date of adjudication. Place each challenged transaction on the line and apply the rule tied to that segment. Keep a one-page table of transaction types with their effect and the period in which that effect applies.
When a client's claim is supported only by a private document, the candidate treats it as full proof of the debt and does not address the opponent's right to deny the handwriting or seal, nor the consequences of a denial (انکار) or a claim of forgery (ادعای جعل) and the resulting need for expert examination.
Evidence questions are often answered as a list of proof types rather than as an analysis of the probative weight of each. The private document is mentally filed as 'written evidence' and the procedural attacks on it are forgotten.
What to do instead
For each evidence type, memorise a short chain: who bears the burden, what the document proves by itself, what attack the opponent may raise, and what procedure follows. Write a model paragraph on a private document that walks through denial, forgery claim, and expert referral.
The candidate drafts a judgment that recites the facts and the parties' contentions at length but gives a conclusion with no reasoned link between the evidence and the legal rule, or cites an article number without quoting or applying its content to the facts.
Judicial writing is revised by reading model judgments rather than by writing them. Reading creates recognition, not production, so under exam conditions the candidate reproduces narrative structure and skips the reasoning step.
What to do instead
Practise a fixed four-part template: issue, applicable rule with its text, application to the admitted facts, and operative ruling. Write at least ten short judgments under time pressure and check each one for an explicit sentence of the form 'because X is established by Y, rule Z applies'.
In a criminal procedure question, the candidate mixes the powers of the prosecutor (دادستان) with those of the investigating judge or the court, for example stating that the prosecutor may issue a search warrant or order detention without judicial review where the statute requires a judicial authority.
The criminal procedure code has been amended repeatedly and candidates study old summaries. The names of authorities sound interchangeable in Persian, and the allocation of coercive measures is not practised as a table.
What to do instead
Make an authority-by-measure matrix: for each coercive measure (search, arrest, detention, bail, wiretap), list who may order it, on what grounds, and the maximum duration. Revise only from the current statute text and date every summary you use.
The candidate answers a jurisprudence (فقه امامیه) question by giving the modern statutory rule and labelling it as the فقهی rule, without naming the juristic doctrine (e.g. the rule on conditional sale, the rule of ما یضمن, or the rule on the sale of a thing not yet owned) or the reasoning behind it.
Candidates treat فقه as background to statute and assume the statutory answer will earn the marks. They therefore skip the terminology and the analogical reasoning that the question is actually testing.
What to do instead
For each major transaction rule, memorise one juristic maxim or doctrine, its meaning, and one application. Practise answers that state the فقهی rule first, then show how the statute adopted or modified it, so both layers appear.
On a civil procedure question about a procedural defect, the candidate declares the whole proceeding void without checking whether the defect is one that the statute treats as nullifying, whether it was objected to at the proper time, and whether the defect can be cured.
The word 'void' is over-learned and applied as a blanket remedy. Candidates do not distinguish absolute nullity, relative nullity, and irregularity, and do not track the time limits for raising each.
What to do instead
Keep a three-tier classification with examples for each tier and the time and manner of objection. In every answer, state the tier, the objection deadline, and whether cure is possible before concluding on the effect on the proceeding.
The candidate calculates execution costs, auction procedures, or deadlines from memory of round numbers, and in a problem involving a public auction states the wrong notice period, the wrong deposit rule, or the wrong order of distribution of proceeds among creditors.
Execution procedure is full of numbers and sequences that are easy to skim. Candidates revise the concepts and leave the figures and the ranking of creditors unmemorised, then guess under time pressure.
What to do instead
Build a one-page execution timeline with every period, deposit rule, and step in order, plus a separate ranking list for distribution of proceeds (preferred debts, secured creditors, ordinary creditors). Rehearse by writing the timeline from blank paper weekly.