DIJON: Solemn return of lawyers
The festive ceremony of the Dijon Bar was held in the lounges of the Gaston Gérard stadium this Friday, December 3. “Justice needs only one choice: resources commensurate with the mission with which it is invested within our democracy”, claimed the President of the Bar Stéphane Creusvaux in front of 300 people.
To face the gloom of the health crisis, the solemn re-entry of the lawyers of the Dijon bar was tinged with lightness without forgetting to spice up a point of policy.
The evening took place this Friday, December 3, 2021 in the lounges of the Gaston Gérard stadium, mobilizing the technical resources of the Dijon Football Côte-d’Or event team. President Stéphane Creusvaux continued the ceremony attended by 300 people, mainly lawyers.
Also present were François-Xavier Dugourd (LR), vice-president of the departmental council of Côte-d’Or, Nathalie Koenders (PS), vice-president of the Dijon metropolitan council, Nadjoua Belhadef (PS), deputy mayor of Dijon, Olivier Caracotch, public prosecutor of Dijon, and his predecessor, Éric Mathais, now public prosecutor of Bobigny, as well as Bruno Laplane, president of the court of Dijon, without forgetting representatives of the police and the gendarmerie .
“A bit of madness after two years of frustration”
At the end of his mandate, Stéphane Creusvaux summed up “a sports baton”. From where an arrival punctuated by music and bengal fires, from the lawn of the stadium, to the applause and encouragement of the participants. “It’s hard to resist a little madness after two years of frustration.”
With humor, parodying a television show, Alexis Faivre, first secretary of the 2020 conference of the council of the order, and Élise Rolet, first secretary of the 2021 conference, take the public “in the corridors of the judicial city” in ignoring political correctness.
The magistrates of the criminal court, the administrative court, the assize court and the judge in family affairs take it for their rank while a lawyer, a certain “Émeric Durand-Mojito” having been “exfiltrated from the government”, the subject of special attention.
“The hearing embodies the meeting between litigants and their judges”
Features of humor that reveal the place of the hearing in the justice process: “the hearing for what it embodies, the meeting between litigants and their judges, (…) space in the course of history written history becomes living history, (…) justice cannot remain a democratic pillar unless it is embodied by men and women who preserve its humanity ”.
The two speakers warn of the drift towards “an algorithmic arbitration without soul” and “an office justice, invisible to those who are the subjects and in the name it is taken care of”. “If there is no more meeting, it is a safe bet that the decisions will no longer be respected, the judgments will have no more value than a simple administrative decision”, they anticipate.
“A Dijon bar united in adversity”
When Stéphane Crevaux takes the floor again to unfold the highlights of his mandate, the laughter continues as he recalls in his own way the practical consequences of the movements of the yellow vests, the nine-week lawyers’ strike in the face of early retirement reform. of the year 2020 or the emergence of the health crisis in March 2020.
“Hold on, stay the course in the storm, learn to adapt, advice from the distance: Teams, Skype, BlueJeans. Continue, whatever the cost, but whatever the cost: being there for everyone, together, leaving no one by the side of the road ”, remembers Stéphane Creusvaux
“I breathe, I breathe. Find solutions to relieve the colleagues, financially, but not only. Solidarity, brotherhood, that’s ordinality, that’s what makes the strength of our profession: the unity of individuality. A Dijon bar united in adversity, ”claims the outgoing president in front of the elected president, Jean-Philippe Schmitt, who will take over in January 2022.
The President of the Bar also pays tribute to Maître Arnaud Jeaugey, who accidentally died in the summer of 2021: “it was a great sadness for our bar; he was a rigorous, discreet lawyer, of a very great brotherhood ”.
“The Keeper of the Seals to move back due”
Another highlight: the appointment of a former lawyer at the Chancellery with Eric Dupond-Moretti who becomes the Minister of Justice of Emmanuel Macron. “The excitement of the early days gave way to doubt and annoyance,” says Stéphane Creusvaux.
After the attempt to create a statute of lawyer in company, the provisions on the professional secrecy of lawyers included in the bill on confidence in the judicial institution carried by Eric Dupond-Moretti make cringe at the bar of Dijon and cause a demonstration (read our article).
Despite the letter addressed to the lawyers and a direct exchange with the Minister (read our article), Stéphane Creusvaux drives the point home on this issue: “the advisory activity and the defense activity cannot be changed differently”. And to judge that “the Keeper of the Seals had to back down, at least in part, by retaining the amendment proposal of the Conference of the Bâtonniers and, above all, by including the President of the Bar”.
“Means” to improve confidence in justice
“Justice needs only one chosen one: means commensurate with the mission with which it is invested within our democracy, just like health and education. It is neither the filmed trials, nor the states-general of justice that will make it possible to establish the confidence of our fellow citizens in the judicial institution. (…) Only sufficient financial and human resources and in the long term can make it possible to establish confidence in the judicial institution ”, claims the President of the Bar.
Taking up the football metaphor, Stéphane Creusvaux concludes his speech by thanking the council of the order – “a captain is nothing without a good team” – and wishes “good matches” to the president elected for “two more serene seasons”.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon