Written consultations CRIDON has several important missions, but probably its most vital today is database consultation on behalf of its members. In 2006, CRIDON answered 20,163 queries and no fewer than 502,491 documents were consulted in its databases. French legislation on the use of legal information is such that CRIDON's consultants are only authorised to consult on behalf of their members and for the latter's benefit. All other forms of consultation of legal information are forbidden to CRIDON's permanent staff, and this restriction may be waived neither by the needs of their own professional work nor by their academic position. The purpose of this consultation mission is to address legal issues arising in all areas that are of importance to the Notarial function. There is a  mistaken belief that CRIDON's consultants only deal with specifically notarial issues. On the contrary, their mission is to support notaries who contact them whenever they are in difficulty; and this unsurprisingly includes issues that do not necessarily fall within the scope of routine business. In fact, it is when clients present novel cases that the Notary will have doubts and maybe reasons for anxiety. A good professional who is familiar with wills, marriage settlements or filiation will not necessarily be well equipped to advise a client who is seeking to open a factory in Spain, have a boat built in Trieste, or help a political party to buy premises for a new head office using money from public savings. It is when dealing with situations like this that are not part of the Notary's bread-and-butter practice that CRIDON excels. Consultation also consists in providing guidance to Notaries who have to find their way through the complications sometimes engendered by new legislation, administrative recommendations or the latest sudden change in jurisprudence. It helps Notaries to come to terms with the new situation and its implications, and factor these into their daily practice. It contributes to forging new working methods that are indispensable for the development of any professional practice. "Written consultations" are the most appropriate way to address legal issues for which there is no obvious solution, assuming, that is, that a sure solution is there to be found! Private law in France has been changing and many queries that used to be "legal issues" with answers dictated by "systematic solutions" based on a  mathematically rigorous logic, have become "de facto issues" that are subject to the sometimes highly unpredictable sensibility of the magistrates judging them. Our society no longer has the courage to abide by the letter of the law when enforcement yields decisions that are felt to carry too much pain. What we have instead is a sense of proportionality. The letter of the law is not enforced when penalties appear too stiff. Whether they are right or wrong in the eyes of the law, there is a likelihood that claimants will often only half win or half lose their case. As a matter of principle CRIDON does not pronounce an opinion once a dispute has been engaged. Total information queries by branch  The consultation process Telephone consultation A query submitted by telephone, fax or e-mail may be followed up by a telephone consultation, but this service is available only to authorised users, namely Notaries who are members of CRIDON and authorised collaborators. It would be wrong to imagine that an oral consultation requires less thought or research than a query in writing. Consultants will deal with it just as carefully. The resulting position will be just as solid and tenable. The differences will probably lie in the nature of the query itself. Advice given orally assumes an immediate decision as to the position to take and the policy to adopt when time is at a premium. In this case there is an imperative need to know "what to do" rather than "why". Consultants will back up their opinion with arguments that are not designed to reassure the enquirer but to provide authoritative instruments to support a suggested point of view and to bolster the capacity to combat adversaries. When a notary submits a query by e-mail or fax it is assigned to a specialist who calls back on the same day. Telephone consultations are billed at the same rates as written consultations. Appointments Notaries who are members of CRIDON de Paris can make an appointment with one or more consultants at any time. They may invite their collaborators or clients to attend.