magistrates, lawyers and clerks take their anger to the streets

All over France, magistrates and lawyers were in the street to denounce a justice that they consider ill, Wednesday, December 15. In Lyon (Rhône), demonstrators denounced the delays that accumulate for everyday problems, traffic offenses or violence. “Currently, when a case is ready to be presented to the magistrate for him to judge, we cannot fix it before March 2023”, indicates Anne Wyon, first president of the Court of Appeal of Lyon.

Trials are sometimes postponed until the day of the hearing. “We will look at the cases that we are able to deal with and which are the most urgent (…), those which will have to be sent back, because the hearing time is not sufficient to be able to absorb everything”, explains Laetitia Francart, prosecutor of Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône). In the Paris region too, the proceedings drag on, and the judicial staff say they are overwhelmed. Some say they make mistakes due to lack of time, or they can no longer investigate certain cases.