lawyers mobilize to defend professional secrecy
At the beginning of the afternoon, this Tuesday, November 16, 2021, Dijon lawyers are calling for demonstrations to protect professional secrecy, a pillar of the relationship with their clients. A bill threatening the leverage for certain consulting activities.
No question of touching professional secrecy. At 1:30 p.m. this afternoon, the lawyers will demonstrate in front of the judicial district in Dijon, to defend him unconditionally. The date owes nothing to chance: the deputies are examining this Tuesday, November 16, 2021 a bill that authorizes the lifting of professional secrecy for consulting activities in certain cases.
Terrorism, tax fraud, corruption, money laundering, influence peddling … If the article passes, investigators can look up correspondence between the client and his lawyer in many cases. For the President of the Dijon Bar, Stéphane Creusvaux, “Professional secrecy has the same legislative value as medical secrecy. “
Professional secrecy is there to protect the client, not the lawyer. If it is deleted, it will be a reduction in the rights of the customer.
The project led by the Minister of Justice Eric Dupont-Moretti crystallizes the anger of the lawyers: “The lawyer has an advisory and defense activity. This often goes hand in hand and calls into question one encountered in danger the other” explains Stéphane Creusvaux.
Facilitate investigations
For the representative of the lawyers, received in the morning from France Bleu and France 3 Bourgogne, the argument put forward to defend the draft amendment is not admissible.
How can a fundamental rights inquiry prevail?
There are other ways to conduct quality investigations without trampling on one of the democratic values of professional secrecy.
This bill for confidence in the judicial institution presented by the Keeper of the Seals aims, according to the latter, to restore the link between the population and the justice system.
This section on the lifting of professional secrecy probably arose from a request from the national financial prosecutor’s office following the latest tax fraud scandals but, for the President of the Bar, we should not think of the rights of the defense according to the circumstances: “I think that from the moment you diminish a right, it will cause difficulties for all litigants, whether large or small.”
The adoption of this article on professional secrecy is now in the hands of elected officials. MPs review it today and Senators November 18, 2021.
To be part of their opposition, the callers to demonstrate throughout France. Some bars have signed motions such as that of Mâcon, in Saône-et-Loire, which brings together 75 professionals.
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