lawyer Caty Richard warns about the state of our judicial system

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Friday January 12, 2024: Criminal lawyer, Caty Richard. She published with Catherine Siguret the book “Crimes, misdemeanors and broken lives” published by Albin Michel.

Caty Richard is one of the best known and even recognized criminal lawyers in France. She participated in numerous high-profile trials, such as those of Jonathann Daval and Yvan Colonna. As a child, she wanted to work in a maternity ward. However, his inner balance, driven by emotion, understanding and empathy, shifted towards justice. She published with Catherine Siguret the book Crimes, offenses and broken lives published by Albin Michel.

franceinfo: In Crimes, offenses and broken lives, you write: “My dream was to give birth to children instead of burying them” and a little further on you add: “My head is populated with corpses, stolen lives, soiled, desecrated bodies, often unbearable photos in the file. You have been pleading, arguing and defending for three decades. The more the years pass, the more we get the impression that the judicial system is finally falling apart.

Caty Richard: Yes, I would like us to trust the police and the justice system. I think justice should be done in the courts. But aside from that, I am appalled by the way things are going. It’s true that I also criticize the magistrates, but they too work in increasingly complicated conditions, more and more even inhumane among themselves. So it’s true that I’m not optimistic and then, things aren’t going to get better. You should know that there is a report from the inter-inspection evaluation mission of the national police which has just been delivered. June 2023, we learn that we have 2.7 million complaints in stock, that is to say old things that we don’t know what to do with. From time to time, we file without follow-up. But what’s terrible about that is that not only do we tell you: “There are a lot of procedures in stock”, but then a little later they do some prospecting and then they tell you in the prospecting: “There you have it, the mission retained three scenarios for the evolution of delinquency. Scenario no. 1: continuation of current delinquency. Well, we will have 3.5 million procedures in stock in 2030. Second scenario: increase in delinquency by 2%. So there, we will have 5.4 million procedures in stock. And then, third scenario, increase in delinquency of 4%“That is to say that the mission cannot even envisage that delinquency will decrease.

“There was something that worked in France, it was the judicial police. The judicial police were those who had the time, the means, well it is disappearing. It is absorbed by public security.”

Caty Richard

at franceinfo

In France, it’s extraordinary, we remove what works in favor of what doesn’t work. And I’m worried because the judicial police were dealing with serious matters. I saw Franck Martins, who was the police officer who arrested Dino Scala… Judicial police! Above all that failed: public safety. Obviously, we are going into the wall.

You tell us to what extent, ultimately, your main fight is to restore life and body to these people, either missing, affected, or raped. Is that the hardest part?

Caty Richard: The most difficult thing is that we don’t learn countertransference like psychiatrists. You always have to have distance. Sometimes we have angry customers, in these cases we get into a whirlwind. And we must tell them: “I’m not you. That’s why I’m going to help you because I’m not you“. But on the other hand, I have to feel for them all the same. So there is a razor’s edge to have to take it completely in the guts, to feel, to absorb, but to still also keep the height.

“The profession of lawyer is a permanent, intellectual and above all emotional sport.”

Caty Richard

at franceinfo

All the stories you have encountered, all the stories you have had to plead, also damage you personally. They become scars in a way.

For now, for me, I’m not sure that the word scar is appropriate. The scar is the skin that repairs itself. And in fact, often, I have the impression, instead of hardening myself, of being more and more raw and of feeling the injustices more and more viscerally.

How do we defend today in a society that is dictated by social networks with a public court?

Justice takes time. We cannot form an opinion on serious facts, on someone’s life like that: “Oh, I saw a picture, I have an idea“. But no, the human being is so much more complex than that. That doesn’t mean he’s innocent, but it doesn’t mean he’s a monster either. Justice takes time. And social networks, our instantaneous society, for me, it poses real questions and it also destroys people, that’s for sure.

There is a notion of freedom in almost every business that falls. What is your relationship with this notion of freedom because ultimately, your job is either to remove it or to maintain it?

Yes, I think we are beyond that. I have a very existentialist vision of justice and I think that we are not necessarily free outside and we are not necessarily free in prison. And this freedom which is beyond the prison walls or beyond the outside is a freedom with oneself. Sometimes it is still better to be condemned, but as long as it is fair… And I think that punishment must exist because it is important too, if only to build the perpetrator too.

Watch this interview on video: