Panama's new Civil Procedure Code (Código Procesal Civil), adopted by Law 402 of 2023, is now in force. It takes civil procedure out of the Judicial Code (Código Judicial), the older statute that for decades set the rules for how civil suits were filed, heard and decided, and replaces it with a model organised around oral hearings (audiencias).
For a foreign creditor, heir or business party with a dispute in Panama, the change matters in two ways. It alters how a case moves through court, and it creates a dividing line in time that decides which set of rules applies to your file.
What changed on October 11, 2025
The new code took effect on October 11, 2025. The key question for any case is the date on which it was started, because the code does not reach back to proceedings already under way. The table sets out the two regimes side by side.
| Cases started before October 11, 2025 | Cases started on or after October 11, 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Governing rules | Former Judicial Code | Civil Procedure Code, Law 402 of 2023 |
| Procedural model | The previous civil procedure | Oral and hearing-based |
| Family matters | Family Code | Family Code, with the new code as a supplement |
The practical effect is that two lawsuits of the same kind, filed a few weeks apart, may follow different procedural rules for years.
Which proceedings it covers
The code reaches civil litigation in general. Two kinds of proceedings are especially relevant to international clients. The first is the executive process (proceso ejecutivo), the summary route a creditor uses to collect a debt backed by an enforceable document, covered in our guide to debt collection in Panama. The second is probate (proceso sucesorio), the court procedure that transfers a deceased person's estate to the heirs, explained in our guide to inheritance and successions.
Court-ordered measures against a debtor's assets also run under the new code, as our guide to asset attachment in Panama describes. These are judicial measures and should not be confused with the administrative preventive freeze of assets linked to UN sanctions lists, which follows a separate regime.
Family cases stay under the Family Code
Family proceedings, such as divorce, custody or support, continue to follow Panama's Family Code (Código de la Familia). The new Civil Procedure Code applies to them only on a supplementary basis, which means it fills gaps where the Family Code is silent but does not displace it.
Cases already in court
If you are already a party to litigation in Panama, the first thing to confirm with counsel is the filing date of your case, because that date, not the date of any later step, determines the governing rules.
What to do now
At iurispa we have updated our civil law guides to the new code, and we adjust the strategy of each matter according to the date it began. If you have a claim or a pending case in Panama, a sensible order is:
- Check whether your case was started before or after October 11, 2025.
- Identify the type of proceeding, whether executive, probate, general civil or family.
- Review your litigation strategy with a lawyer against the rules that actually govern that file.