It is one of the pillars of democracy and yet justice is almost absent from the debates of the presidential campaign. Such is the bitter observation of the 9,000 magistrates of France. Their mobilization as well as that of their fellow clerks since last fall for means “worthy” is, however, unprecedented. The suicide of a magistrate in November 2021 had triggered a shock wave and brought to light the suffering of an entire profession. Has the situation changed in five months? We went to the Nanterre court (Hauts-de-Seine) to observe this daily justice.
We walk into a randomly chosen courtroom on a Monday afternoon. Room B. Here is the 20th correctional chamber. It mainly deals with domestic violence. This violence on which the decision-makers demand that justice puts the accent in recent months. What strikes you immediately when you sit down on the crowded benches at the start of the hearing at 1:30 p.m. is that no microphone is working. And magistrates like lawyers do not even try to attempt an adjustment. They know it’s been far too long since they passed away. It is therefore almost impossible to hear the debates.
The lighting is also faulty. The defense lawyers, on the right side of the room, are almost in the dark. Let’s go behind the scenes before the hearing. On the desk of the presiding judge – Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss, member of the Union of Judges – a huge pile of 12 files. These are the cases supposed to be judged that day. She prepared them the day before, on Sunday. And it’s the same every Monday. The magistrate knows that she cannot judge them all: “I made a low estimate of the hearing time that would be required to examine and judge all these files, it would take at least 16 hours. It is simply not possible since all the people were summoned at 1 p.m. and that would mean that some would ultimately only be judged around 5 a.m. When you know the concentration and the seriousness that the work of justice demands, that would be totally unreasonable”.
The bell rings and the judge, accompanied by her two colleagues – since it is a collegial hearing – takes her place knowing that the only solution she has is to dismiss half of the cases scheduled. They should be postponed to a later date. But even that doesn’t happen in a second. Because in cases where the defendant is in pre-trial detention, there is a major question to be decided: are they kept in prison pending the future hearing? For the most part, the cases referred are due in March or April 2023. No slot is available in the court’s agenda for almost a year.
“A blow for the victims”deplores Marc-Antoine Levy, lawyer at the bar of Essonne, accustomed to representing, on behalf of the county council, children victims of violence in their families.
“For children or teenagers, a year is an eternity. Their life during this time is often on hold.”
Marc-Antoine Levy, lawyer at the bar of Essonneat franceinfo
Even if it is incomparable, it is also a blow for the lawyers who arrived with their sharp arguments who leave without having barely put on their robes. The defendants themselves are sometimes bitter at the announcement of such dismissals. Like this couple who deny violence against their teenage daughter. The father is as if stunned on leaving the courtroom and lets go: “I wanted to appear, I want to explain myself because I am completely innocent. But it will not be possible before March 2023. It causes concern in the family. It is unlikely”.
If this father is cleared in a year, he will have been wrongfully removed from his daughter for 18 months. Because while waiting for the criminal judgment next year, the children’s judge placed the teenager in a children’s home. Shortly after 3 p.m., once all the dismissals have been announced, the court finally moves on to the cases it is going to judge. Without a break they follow one another. Violent husbands, a father who shook his baby, an abusive sports coach. At 7 p.m., a last file presents itself: a young man who harassed and even spied for months on his ex-girlfriend with whom he had been in a relationship for three short weeks. Everything seems ready for him to appear but none of the police present in court is available to pick up this defendant, detainee, who is waiting his turn at the depot located in the basement of the courthouse. It will take an hour and a half and the end of an assize trial in the next room for an escort to be released.
It is past 11 p.m. when the stalker in tears in the box finally receives nine months in prison. His victim Émilie, 35, stayed in the room for 10 hours waiting and then testifying. “This is my first contact with justice. I never could have imagined that there would be such waiting timesshe says. I thought I was going home around 4 p.m. and now I’m going to have to run almost after one of the last RER to get home. Fortunately, as I am on sick leave, I had nothing planned for this evening and I have no children to look after.she tries to joke after what was one of the most difficult moments in her life despite everything.
None of the parties could eat except perhaps a candy bar from the vending machine located in the salle des pas perdus. President Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss then debriefs us this afternoon “marathon” : “At the end, I saw lawyers yawning, colleagues struggling to concentrate. We are human beings, we have biological rhythms to respect. I’m not even talking about the last defendant, who had been taken from his cell this morning and stayed all day at the depot. This situation is not satisfactory for anyone. Since November we have undertaken not to extend our hearings beyond 9 p.m., to notify our managers until after this hour we are in ‘impossibility to do’. It could be a means of action to denounce the overload of the audiences. But that is only theory. We are conscientious, this evening we wanted to finish. ”
“Everyone takes it upon themselves. We hold on thanks to the adrenaline. Then once we get home, we breathe, we lie down and the body lets go.”
Ulrika Delaunay-Weiss, judgeat franceinfo
We also went to the same jurisdiction to see if civil justice – as opposed to criminal justice – was as badly off. This justice does not make the headlines and yet it represents the bulk of the judgments rendered. We are talking about litigation, placements under guardianship, family affairs. Example of a morning hearing at the Boulogne-Billancourt local court. The room is dark with people. Nearly 50 files follow one another in just over three hours. This time, the judge is alone and cannot devote more than a few minutes to each dispute.
Maître Jean-Claude Bertaux represents an old lady who owns a studio. The rent of 600 euros is almost his only income. The tenant has not paid for 15 months: “We summoned last June. And it’s only today that we come before a judge. And even if she shows the utmost seriousness, she must send the files. It’s not serious. There is distress behind. These delays in getting your problem examined are not normal. And then you still have to enforce the decisions. There, it can take years.”is in despair the lawyer.
We pick at the exit of this hearing the judge who managed the 50 cases. Audrey Goubil, in her thirties. She is exhausted after her performance.
“People come before us, the file we are examining is for them the file of their life. We have to understand them and at the same time, we have no other choice but to reframe them, cut them, force them to synthesize because you have to see them all.”
Audrey Goubil, judgeat franceinfo
“And then after the hearing, I still have to decide the disputes, write my decisions, continues the judge. All this is in addition to my mission as a judge of guardianships that I exercise on other days. It happens on certain weekends that I am also a judge of freedoms and detention. I am also sitting next week in the assizes. It’s a versatility that we value but the workload is monster”comments the young woman. “I have two young children and every night, once I put them to sleep, the first thing I do is reopen my files. Our spouses make up for this huge investment. Some colleagues are cracking up,” says Audrey Goubil.
The feeling is clearly that the impoverished, overburdened institution is resisting thanks to the patience of the litigants and the dedication of its agents. The conference of the presidents of courts recently estimated that it would be necessary to increase by 35% the personnel for a correct operation. The Justice budget may have been reassessed as never since 2017, and even by 8% in 2021, the effort remains insufficient given the delay accumulated for several decades. Emmanuel Macron promises the creation of 1,000 magistrate posts within five years. Marine Le Pen promises 7,000.