The Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, presented Thursday in Colmar a “first distribution” of the creation of posts for magistrates, clerks and legal attachés in the jurisdictions of 36 courts of appeal by 2027.

These creations of 1,500 magistrate posts, 1,500 court clerks and 1,100 justice attachés are provided for in the 2023-2027 programming law of the Ministry of Justice.

The law, already voted in first reading in the National Assembly and the Senate, must be the subject of a joint committee in October for its final adoption.

These job creations will extend until 2027 for magistrates and clerks, 2025 for justice attachés. They vary according to the courts, ranging from 24 for the Papeete Court of Appeal, in Tahiti (four magistrates, 13 clerks and seven legal attachés), to 596 for the Paris Court of Appeal (184 magistrates, 258 clerks and 154 court officers).

Behind Paris, the courts of appeal which receive the most reinforcements are Versailles (77 magistrates, 127 clerks and 72 attachés, i.e. 276 posts), Aix-en-Provence (87 magistrates, 97 clerks, 72 attachés, i.e. 256 posts) , and Douai (91 magistrates, 64 court clerks, and 59 legal attachés, i.e. 214 posts).

“More magistrates, more court clerks, more legal attachés, it is justice that takes the time to listen to the litigant, it is court decisions that are rendered more quickly”, declared Eric Dupond-Moretti during a videoconference meeting before the heads of the courts of appeal.

This “historic effort” after “30 years of abandonment of justice” should make it possible to “halve the times of justice” by 2027, with “a first court decision in less than 12 months”, aims the Keeper of the Seals.

The distribution of additional positions was made according to the “volume of business” and the “growth of the population” on each court of appeal, but also according to the “median standard of living”, the “density of population” or even “the number of lawyers”, specified Mr. Dupond-Moretti.

It is now up to the heads of court to distribute these reinforcements between the various courts, in particular by favoring the first instance, to provide legal responses “as quickly as possible” to the offenses, and respecting “the arbitration adopted ” by the Ministry of 70% of magistrates for the services of the seat, and 30% for the services of the prosecution.

08/31/2023 14:13:36 – Colmar (AFP) – © 2023 AFP