French Legal Translation of Seizure: saisie judiciaire or crise médicale?

⚠️ A false friend between medicine and procedure.

The word seizure is widely known in everyday English as a crise d’épilepsie.
But in law, it has a completely different meaning: the saisie légale de biens (fonds, documents, immeubles…) carried out by an authority, often in the framework of an enquête, redressement or procédure d’exécution.

⚖️ In Law: privation légale de biens ou d’actifs

Seizure refers to a coercive measure by which an authority takes possession of property, either temporarily or permanently.

Examples:

• The authorities ordered the seizure of the vehicle
  → Les autorités ont ordonné la saisie du véhicule

• The court authorized the seizure of bank accounts
  → Le tribunal a autorisé la saisie des comptes bancaires

• Customs officials seized counterfeit goods
  → Les douanes ont saisi des marchandises contrefaites

🧾 Related Legal Expressions

• Search and seizure → perquisition et saisie

• Asset seizure → saisie d’actifs

• Warrant of seizure → mandat de saisie

• Seized property → bien saisi

⚠️ Do Not Confuse With saisir une juridiction

A frequent mistake among French-speaking lawyers is to think that “saisir un juge” translates as to seize a court.
This is incorrect.

✅ Correct formulations:

• To refer the matter to a court

• To bring the case before the judge

• To file a claim / initiate proceedings

Example:

• The plaintiff referred the matter to the Commercial Court
  → Le demandeur a saisi le tribunal de commerce

👉 The verb to seize in English means to take possession of property, never saisir une juridiction.

✅ In Summary

• Seizure (legal) = saisie judiciaire de biens ou d’actifs, often based on a mandat or court authorization

• ❌ Not to be confused with a crise médicale

• ❌ Never use seize a court for saisir une juridiction

📌 Le Conseil de TransLex

Before translating seizure, ask yourself:

• Is this about mesures d’exécution sur des biens?

• Is the term used in a context médical or juridique?

• Is there a risk of confusion with saisine d’un tribunal?

👉 In law, seizure = saisie légale de propriété, not action judiciaire.
👉 For saisir une juridiction, always prefer refer the matter to the court.