Toulon Bar Lawyers Demand Justice: Consequences of Judge Shortage

More than a hundred lawyers from the Toulon bar – which has just over 500 – gathered this Monday at 1 p.m. on the steps of the courthouse to denounce the consequences of a lack of judges in the city -prefecture. Family matters, disputes between owners and tenants, real estate disputes… Due to a lack of sufficient magistrates, “hearings are canceled and postponed sometimes for up to eleven months”, summarizes M^e Sophie Caïs, president of the Bar Association.

“This situation is no longer acceptable.”

At issue, according to the Toulon Bar, is the absence of replacements for five judges on sick leave or maternity leave, which is added to the vacancy of five other positions which were not filled at the start of the school year. That is to say a shortage of ten magistrates out of a workforce of 43. “The heads of jurisdiction do what they can with what they have, it is up to the Chancellery to take this situation into account”underlines Sophie Caïs.

Other actions planned

Result, “People whose houses are collapsing or victims of fraud are still waiting for decisions on their compensation.” For lawyers too, the extension of deadlines, beyond the “reasonable”is not without consequences. “Clients think their lawyers are not doing their job…”

In an attempt to put pressure on the Ministry of Justice, the Bar Council voted on a motion deciding to suspend the participation of lawyers in the activities of the Departmental Council for Access to Law (CDAD) until December 31.

Concretely, this means that the services which allow litigants to consult a lawyer free of charge at the House of Justice and Law, at the courthouse and in town halls within the jurisdiction of Toulon (more than 500,000 inhabitants) are no longer provided.

“We are very attached to access to the law, this is part of our missions as auxiliaries of justice, but the situation has never been so catastrophic and we believe that this suspension may have an impact on the Chancellery, which is very attached to CDAD.” Without what “we will reserve the possibility of carrying out other actions…”