payment order

noun · Mahnbescheid

The Mahnbescheid is the opening step of the Mahnverfahren, the streamlined route to a title for a claim to a definite sum of money, §§ 688 ff. ZPO. Nobody examines whether the claim is good: if the debtor lets the two-week objection period pass without reacting the creditor obtains a Vollstreckungsbescheid, and that document is an enforceable title. English has no equivalent procedure, so the terms must be explained rather than swapped.

Which translation, when

Mahnbescheidthe first order: on the creditor’s application the court issues a Mahnbescheid where the claim is one for payment of a definite sum of money, § 688 Abs. 1 ZPO; the application need only identify the claim, not plead it, and the file is handled by central courts in largely automated form, so no judge tests whether the claim exists, which is exactly why the procedure is fast and why the debtor’s reaction carries so much weight.

Widerspruch und Einspruchthe two objections: against the Mahnbescheid the debtor lodges a Widerspruch, the period being two weeks, § 692 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 ZPO, and it remains admissible until the Vollstreckungsbescheid has been issued, § 694 Abs. 1; a late Widerspruch is treated as an Einspruch, Abs. 2, and the Einspruch is the remedy against the Vollstreckungsbescheid itself, § 700 ZPO, on the two-week period the judgment entry holds for the default judgment it is equated with; both German words become objection in English, so the translation must say which document is being attacked.

Vollstreckungsbescheidthe title at the end: where no Widerspruch arrives the creditor may apply for the Vollstreckungsbescheid, § 699 ZPO, and it counts as a default judgment declared provisionally enforceable, § 700 Abs. 1 ZPO; it is a title in its own right under § 794 Abs. 1 Nr. 4 ZPO, which the enforceable title entry holds, and it becomes unassailable once the Einspruch period passes, without any court ever having examined the merits.

kein englisches Gegenstückthe translation problem: England abolished its old summary procedures and works with default judgment under the Civil Procedure Rules, so payment order, order for payment and summary judgment all point at something else; the honest rendering keeps Mahnverfahren, Mahnbescheid and Vollstreckungsbescheid and adds a short explanation, since the European order for payment under Regulation 1896/2006 is again a different instrument.

Why

Payment order is the usual English label for the Mahnbescheid, and the pair needs care because the German procedure behind it has no close counterpart. The Mahnverfahren, §§ 688 ff. ZPO, is a streamlined route to an enforceable title for claims to a definite sum of money. The creditor applies, the application need only identify the claim rather than plead its merits, and the file is processed by central mahnverfahren courts in largely automated form; no judge asks whether the claim is well founded. The court issues the Mahnbescheid and serves it, and from there everything turns on the debtor. If he lodges a Widerspruch, the two-week period running from service, § 692 Abs. 1 Nr. 3 ZPO, and admissible as long as the Vollstreckungsbescheid has not been issued, § 694 Abs. 1, the matter moves into ordinary contested proceedings. If he stays silent, the creditor applies for the Vollstreckungsbescheid, § 699 ZPO, which counts as a default judgment declared provisionally enforceable, § 700 Abs. 1, and is an enforceable title in its own right. Against that second document the remedy is the Einspruch, and a Widerspruch lodged too late is treated as one, § 694 Abs. 2. Once the Einspruch period has run, the title stands for thirty years although no court examined the claim. For the translator two things follow. First, Widerspruch and Einspruch both surface in English as objection, and only naming the document attacked keeps them apart. Second, there is no English procedure to map onto: the Civil Procedure Rules work with default judgment, and the European order for payment is a separate instrument of its own, so the safest course is to keep the German terms and explain them, which is what German practice itself does in cross-border files.

Typical mistakes

No court examines the merits in the Mahnverfahren, so describing the Mahnbescheid as a judicial decision on the claim misdescribes what the debtor receives.
Widerspruch attacks the Mahnbescheid and Einspruch the Vollstreckungsbescheid, so rendering both as objection without naming the document loses the step and the deadline.
The Vollstreckungsbescheid is an enforceable title equivalent to a provisionally enforceable default judgment, § 700 Abs. 1 ZPO, so treating it as a reminder letter understates it entirely.

What matters

Advising a client who has received German court post: the translation should name the document as Mahnbescheid or Vollstreckungsbescheid, state which objection belongs to it, and give the deadline rather than a generic reference to a payment order.

Authority

§ 688 ZPO
§ 692 ZPO
§ 700 ZPO

What the machine misses

A machine rendering of payment order gives Zahlungsanordnung or Zahlungsbefehl, neither of which names the German instrument, and the procedure behind the Mahnbescheid of § 688 ZPO runs without any examination of the merits, ending in a Vollstreckungsbescheid that is a full enforceable title; the loose word also erases the difference between Widerspruch and Einspruch, on which the deadline depends.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

an order for payment	ein Mahnbescheid
to lodge an objection to the order for payment	Widerspruch gegen den Mahnbescheid einlegen
an enforcement order	ein Vollstreckungsbescheid
the matter proceeds to contested proceedings	die Sache geht in das streitige Verfahren über