Services closed, longer waiting times, exhausted magistrates… Justice on the verge of burnout
“My justice will crack”. It could be the title of a film whose script is being written at Toulouse. For many months, warning signs are red within the Palais de justice of the Pink City, whose activity continues to grow without the human resources to deal with cases being increased tenfold. A situation that pushed the President of the judicial court to take drastic measures in the face of the erosion of its workforce.
For lack of a magistrate, Xavier Pavageau decided to suspend the service which deals with managing and evaluating the damages of the victims, just like the compensation commission. “It is an unbearable situation for the victims. In the juvenile court, I only have eight judges, when the Gironde has twelve. Two are on arrest and not replaced, this will result in protective measures which will be taken without a hearing”, deplores the one for whom “it is a slump”.
Less well endowed than Marseille or Lille
Strong words that symbolize the suffering of its teams, who do not count their hours but are increasingly victims of “professional burnout syndrome”. “We have a population pool of 1.3 million people in the jurisdiction of Toulouse, with established and constantly rising crime. Last year we had 19,580 personal injury cases compared to less than 10,000 in 2019. The volume of cases keeps growing and we have about the same number of people to handle them as there were three- four years. We have two judges and a prosecutor appointed in 2021, but that’s not enough. On the snapshot of the means, but the gap is so great between reality and the need that these means pass in the previews, “supports Samuel Vuelta-Simon, the public prosecutor for whom it will take a minimum reinforcement of seven magistrates at the public prosecutor’s office and at least twenty judges.
A way to compensate for the significant delay in human resources that Toulouse has suffered for several years. By way of comparison, Lille and its jurisdiction have returned 1.25 million inhabitants and have 100 judges, 25 more than the judicial court of the Pink City which covers a higher population. And Toulouse has more than twice as many judges per million inhabitants as that of Marseille.
The two judicial officials hope that next February, their jurisdiction will benefit from assignments of new magistrates. But they may also have no illusions about the announcements made last month by the Keeper of the Seals as part of His action plan for justice. Éric Dupond-Moretti indicated that “1,500 more magistrates, 1,500 more clerks, many contract workers and prison staff” were going to be hired. “But to train a judge or a prosecutor it takes three years, the announcements made, we will only see the impact in several years”, continue the head of the prosecution who took the decision to close 2,000 cases without action. gravity and old on a stock of 55,000 being processed.
A motion and a mock trial by Toulouse lawyers
This observation, Toulouse lawyers also do and deplore it too. “Civil interest hearings have been suspended for two months and automatically dismissed. In family affairs, we have not had dates for procedures other than divorces since the end of September. I have had to tell clients whose files were closed last December that they would not be processed for a year. We are limited in the denial of justice » tackle Caroline Marty-Daudibertières, the president of Toulouse.
About ten days ago, his bar decided to vote on a motion calling for the creation of around thirty posts of magistrates and clerks and the replacement of absences. He also sent a letter to the Keeper of the Seals on the same subject. “Without an answer from him, we will seize the Council of State. We have to stop being told that we are going to increase the means in the future. We don’t believe in Santa Claus any more. On the impression of a pile of reforms dictated without consideration of the practical constraints, ”pleads the one who represents 1,830 lawyers registered with the bar.
Some of them will participate in the fictitious trial for “attempted murder of justice” which will take place on February 8th. A hearing where we will find the State in the dock, where the witnesses will present the consequences of this very degraded situation.