Following the assignment by the Representative Council of Black Associations of France (Conseil Représentatif des Associations Noires de France - CRAN), on May 10, 2013, of the French State and the "Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations", which had imposed Haiti a huge ransom, equivalent (in today's dollars) to of $21 billion, which had forced Haiti to borrow from 1825 to 1946 to repair the alleged damage, that the French planters, said they had suffered at the time, because of the abolition of slavery, the first hearing was held Tuesday, June 3, 2014, at the Palais de Justice of Paris.

The hearing was to allow the judge to ensure the pretrial (mise en état) of documents and set the hearing schedule to follow.

"It is only a technical audience, but in fact we enter the heart of the matter," said Louis-Georges Tin, the President of CRAN. "The legal battle begins objectively, alongside the political battle and the battle of ideas, that we are conducting in parallel. In fact, as we keep saying, there is no peace without justice and no justice without reparation."

HL/ HaitiLibre