At the time of the balance sheet, the accounts are not there. Despite several recruitments last year, the Toulouse Court of Appeal is still understaffed. “We would have to double the number of magistrates to reach the European standard”, revealed Jacques Boulard, the first president of the Toulouse Court of Appeal, during a press briefing on January 17. Clearly, the Court of Appeal should have 80 magistrates instead of the current 40. A slight increase in numbers, however, since there were only 38 in 2019.

Same observation on the side of the public ministry, where the team of Attorney General Franck Rastoul only has nine magistrates. In the spring, the situation is similar. The relevant prosecutor’s offices of the Toulouse Court of Appeal have only 2.65 magistrates per 1,000 inhabitants. This is less than at the national level (3 parquet workers per 1,000 inhabitants), while this average is already well below that of other European countries. “For the Toulouse Court of Appeal to be within the European average of 11.2 public prosecutors per 100,000 inhabitants, it should have (including the general prosecutor’s office) 244 active public prosecutors, instead of 58 to date. », Notes Franck Rastoul. Thus, Toulouse should have 108 public prosecutors instead of the current 27.

As a result, cases are piling up and hearings are set until 2023. Some even remain without a set date. “On a stock of a year and a half of hearings that we will not be able to go up for lack of means, warns Franck Rastoul. We play in Ligue 1 with a national team budget. As in health, we pay for the underinvestment in justice. “We have one of the highest activity rates in France in terms of the number of cases per magistrate and for civil servants, added Jacques Boulard. The magistrates feel that they do not have the means to do their job well. And that also applies to civil servants.

As a result, the first president and the attorney general asked the chancellery for a contract of objectives to improve the situation. In the short term, five magistrates and a few additional clerks would not be too many at the Court of Appeal. As for the public prosecutor’s office, we would be satisfied with two more magistrates. Never stingy with colorful remarks, Franck Rastoul concluded: “We must salute the quick sugars that we have received, but we now need loan sugars”. It remains to be seen whether their wishes will be realized in this election year.