the situation is improving but remains tense

A new example of the lack of means in justice. According to the calculations of the National Conference of Presidents of Courts of Justice, there is a urgent need to create at least 1,500 magistrate posts in France. In Niort, the situation has improved but “there are still difficulties”notes Matthieu Duclos, president of the judicial court of the city of Deux-Sèvres. “We have better lead times thanks to the investment of magistrates and civil servants but this investment has a price, it is also the health of each other. It is also because we had _additional reinforcements_punctually of magistrates, clerks, contract workers who allow to have a better situation but it remains a tense situation”he explains.

Mass management justice

“We are in a justice of mass management”estimates Julien Wattebled, public prosecutor of Niort. “The feeling that judges and civil servants have in the courts today is to have to manage increasingly large flows, to have to manage stacks, to have to manage really mass. The big demand today from magistrates and civil servants is to be able to take time, do their job with a notion of quality”.

Double the staff of the Niort public prosecutor’s office within 10 years

At the registry, the staff should be 67. “In assigned position we are 63 and in actual time worked 59”indicates Muriel Guillet director of the service. On the floor of Niort, there today five magistrates. “In reality 4.6 if we count part-timers. Just if we take the national average of 3.6 magistrates per 100,000 inhabitants, we should be 13.5, therefore three times more. What was asked is that we double the staff of the Niort prosecutor’s office within 10 years”details prosecutor Julien Wattebled.

This increase in staff “is possible over time”assures Matthieu Duclos, the president of the court. “The other European countries have done it, there’s no reason why we can’t do it. We have to take a long-term perspective, create the breeding ground”.

On France Info this Thursday, February 17, the Keeper of the Seals Eric Dupond Moretti defended the five-year record in this domain. The Minister of Justice pointed out that “nearly 700 magistrates” were hired, as well as “850 clerks”. It also specifies “that the next promotion of the National School of the Judiciary will be the most important in the history of this school but there are still things to do”.

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