after the crises, the reforms

Solemn re-entry hearing, this Tuesday, January 26, at the Thionville court. In front of a small audience of guests, President Fabien Son and the public prosecutor Brice Partouche carried out the judicial activity of 2020. A year marked by several crises, which impacted the French courts, Thionville obviously not escaping them. , within its district of 270,000 inhabitants.

Fabien Son: “Chronologically, there was the social movement of lawyers, in reaction to the pension reform project. It crippled our functioning the entire first trimester. Almost all of the cases were referred. The social crisis was followed by the health crisis. The deconfinement resulted on May 11 in the lifting of the business continuity plan and a gradual resumption of activity until September, when we returned to the pre-crisis level. “And to underline” the deterioration of the delays of hearings, and the very strong increase of the stocks of current cases (+ 40% for the family litigation except divorces, + 30% for the civil litigation of proximity). The return to the previous situation will probably take almost a year. A clarification however in this very disturbed landscape: the recruitment of four contractual agents dedicated mainly to local justice.

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“Institutional solitude”

More pungent speech on the part of Brice Partouche, recently arrived in Thionville. “At the height of this health crisis, the State did not consider magistrates and court officials as priority personnel. A certain institutional solitude then followed. “However,” the harshest blow to the justice of this country came neither from a virus, nor from the indifference of the State, but from the legal profession as a whole. 80% of judicial activity has been erased even though delinquency has seen no decline. After so many obstacles and insults, our court had succeeded, on December 31, in rendering more than 1,000 judgments and homologations. That is 75% of the total of what was reasonable to expect compared to 2019. ”

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Divorce and pensions, minors and legal aid

On the theme of “local criminal response”, in 2021, it will be a question of “getting as close as possible to local information sources (Editor’s note: town halls and inter-municipal authorities) and relying on these short circuits”. The prosecutor also intends to maintain a strong mobilization on the issue of domestic violence (20% more complaints in 2020 compared to 2019, or 424 procedures); on that of the fight against burglaries (1,000 facts committed in 2020 and less than 50 facts clarified; and finally on that of the fight against drug trafficking).

For his part, President Son recalled that the recruitment of the four contract agents will help the implementation of several reforms to come this year. Namely: divorce reform (streamlining of the process); reform of the financial intermediation of alimony (even in cases where the file does not reveal any violence); reform of juvenile criminal justice; reform of legal aid (simplification of the process).

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