The solemn return of the Montpellier Court of Appeal evoked citizens’ distrust of justice, the structural lack of resources and the fight against drug trafficking, the priority.
How is justice doing? Friday January 30, the solemn return of the Montpellier Court of Appeal, which embraces Hérault, Aude, PO and Aveyron, delivered a contrasting X-ray. Jean-Michel Etcheverry, the First President, recalls the general climate of distrust towards institutions, “and justice is no exception, it concentrates the most negative opinions” he laments.
With these edifying statistics: 86% of French people consider it too slow and “even more unbearable”three out of four French people consider that it does not treat litigants in an equal manner, that it would be too lax for 3/4 of those surveyed and politicized for 68%… But, paradoxically, eight out of ten litigants confronted with justice say they are satisfied with their meeting with the judge. So, defending the rule of law, he also gave positive signals: in the region, the institution rolled up its sleeves with a reduction in stocks and coverage rates of 110% for civil cases, 120% for commercial cases or 160% in family rooms. But collective investments “will not be enough to bring these stocks back, let alone the time needed to judge them at an acceptable level.”
Critical situation in Béziers and Carcassonne
And this, while in the next six months, there will be a shortage of 10 to 15% of court magistrates, while waiting for the recruits promised by the justice reform plan, by 2027. The situation is critical in Béziers – non-specialized judges handle twice as many cases as the national average – Carcassonne and to a lesser extent Rodez. What to say about Perpignan? The ministry has just frozen the construction of the new courthouse for budgetary reasons… “I share the incomprehension” said the First President soberly.
In criminal matters, the criminal and assize courts of the jurisdiction will have to sit for 250 days compared to 200 currently… “The bottleneck is still there, the stock continues to rise, we have 200 criminal cases awaiting trial, that’s a lot and it increases by 5% each year” worries Jean-Marie Beney, the attorney general. “In correctional matters, there are 2,000 cases for 1,200 judgments rendered. But behind there are victims and those accused, we need delays, if not reasonable, at least acceptable.” So, at the twilight of his career, he listed proposals to compensate for the lack of magistrates such as “citizen assessors” in criminal courts or “use honorary magistrates more and better, by creating task forces that can be deployed on the most difficult assize courts.”
“Better understand tobacco trafficking”
But the most “disruptive” remains this idea of setting up a procedure for pleading guilty in criminal matters while avoiding the investigating judge box in certain cases, “a short circuit” to simplify and accelerate the processing of crimes. Because there is an emergency: “the fight against drug trafficking remains the absolute priority, the “mother of battles” recalls Jean-Marie Beney. “We must also better understand the scale and profits of tobacco trafficking, which is in full expansion, with a lower criminal risk and significant profits: 5,000 cartridges or 1,000,000 cigarettes can bring in €175,000 in profits.”
