Have time to "
listen
" to litigants, "to
explain the decisions
": whistleblowers with other magistrates on the lack of staff in the justice system, Léa Clouteau and Clara Lanoës just wish they could "
work well
" for "
quality
"
justice
.
Their approach, which sparked a fundamental movement in the judiciary after a forum published in Le Monde, was "
triggered
" by the suicide in August of a young colleague, a judge placed within the jurisdiction of the Douai Court of Appeal. , from the same promotion of the National School of Magistrates.
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Added to this were the many sick
leaves
around them, the "
resignation of a colleague after only one year
": Léa Clouteau and Clara Lanoës, 31 and 29 years old, realize that "
something serious is happening
".
"
But everyone says to themselves in their corner
'ohlala I have my piles of files'" and "
nobody dares to complain
".
Léa Clouteau agrees that suicide is always multifactorial.
But her comrade, Charlotte, who died at 29, "
denounced for a year before her death great suffering at work
", she insists.
An investigation into the causes of death is underway at the Lille prosecutor's office, supplemented, she said, by one from the General Inspectorate of Justice.
"Huge ditch"
If they stress that they are neither spokespersons nor unions, their platform - "
We no longer want a justice that does not listen and which times everything
" - initiated with seven colleagues, has since its publication at the end of November been signed by 7000 magistrates and clerks. Enamored by their profession, Léa Clouteau and Clara Lanoës note the “
enormous gap
” between what they learned during their training and their practice in court. In Lille, "
in one morning, you have to pass 25 cases of domestic violence, it's impossible, so you send back cases, but the next date is in a year
", explains Léa Clouteau, also a judge placed (substitute) , delegate in Dunkirk.
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"
We leave people in terrible situations and we are not sure that in a year, they will not be judged both too late and badly
."
She also remembers having had to decide as a children's judge on the renewal of educational measures "
without seeing the families, just with the report of the educator
".
Clara Lanoës, judge at the social center of the Arras court, describes the cases related to asbestos where she prioritizes people who already have cancer over those who "
only
" have pleural plaques, in order to be able to render a decision. before their death.
Or these disputes over disabled adult allowances, "
a question of survival
", with hearing delays of more than six months.
"Not fast enough"
The race against time delivered to do justice deprives the latter of its educational character, when it does not "
lose the sense of the sentence
" they regret. “
In corrections, you never explain the decision, except when people appeal. We don't have time
”, but“
decisions that cannot be explained will be less well accepted,
”points out Léa. While "
many young men are condemned
", the sentence also often occurs when they are in their thirties, that they "
have calmed down a bit
", which is "a
pity
". She still cites the "
classifications without follow-up without rereading the files by deputy prosecutors
" or "
dry releases from prison, which is a factor in recidivism, because the sentence enforcement judge does not have time to receive
”the inmate.
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Making the link with the public hospital, both deplore that the only indicator of good functioning retained is the quantity of decisions rendered and point to the organic law relating to the finance laws of 2001 which replaced a logic of means by a logic of results. .
“
We can be stigmatized for wanting to work well, because things are not going fast enough
,” summarizes Léa Clouteau.
They were received with other signatories by the Keeper of the Seals.
But Eric Dupond-Moretti directed the debate towards "
a management problem rather than a problem of means
" and "
our call for more magistrates and clerks was not heard
".