focused primarily the modest social layers

A page turns. Tomorrow, 178 instance, approximately one third of those existing, courts will be permanently closed their doors. It is a decisive step for the overhaul of the judicial map, launched in 2007 by the ex-garde of the seals Rachida Dati, which aims to remove nearly 350 points of access to the right. If the last reform dated back to 1958, the current mesh of the courts date for most of the beginning of the 19th century, date at which 90 of the population was rural.

The majority of professionals in the law supports the principle. This is the method that crystallize the discontent. Echafaudée in a few months by Rachida Dati, the reform without wide consultation, denounce the representatives of the judiciary, justice officials and lawyers, but also elected representatives.

Access to deteriorated law

In addition to the choice of the jurisdictions concerned, which gave rise to intense lobbying, the organizational and financial monitoring focuses criticism. If the deleted courts cases are automatically transferred to their home jurisdictions, it is not of even numbers: the judges, clerks and administrative personnel, can, indeed, freely to choose their new assignment. "Some jurisdictions found with 30 to 50 more work without additional staff", edge Laurent Bedouet, General delegate of the USM, first Union of judges. In addition to the deterioration of their conditions of work, magistrates and officials for the neighbourhood justice fear and more generally deterioration of access to the right of litigants, then even if the courts cases (guardianship, debt, foreclosures...) focused primarily the modest social layers.

"Certain difficulties".

The cost of the reform is also shown the finger, even if the figures remain unclear. While in 2007, Rachida Dati was between 700 and 800 million euros, the Chancery spoke today about 430 million (read below). Nothing that budget 2010, nearly 11 million have been programmed for social support (individual maintenance, compensation, right to education, aid to housing...) of the 1,800 officers-400 judges and 1,400 staff - affected by the closures. Similarly, 510 lawyers whose bar is brought to close are flat-rate aid - as a percentage of turnover, in the limit of a ceiling of 10,000 had-ros - and an additional indemnity awarded by a commission.

If reform is to term to determine significant economies of scale, the real estate component is particularly expensive. According to the Chancery, it amounts to EUR 385.7 million over five years. A figure "underestimated" according to Member Yves Deniaud, author of a report on the estate of the State made public last November. According to elected officials, on the 178 courts removed by reform, only about 20, was the property of the State, others belonging to General advice or in the Commons who lived them graciously. Result: number of courts are forced to invest in facilities to accommodate the newcomers. It is the case in Epinal, Grenoble or Bayonne, where the absorption of the courts of Biarritz and Saint-Palais made necessary the rental of important offices yet.

Recognizing "certain difficulties", the Minister of Justice, Michèle Alliot-Marie, was "appointed" Secretary of State, Jean-Marie Bockel, to the Tower of the courts, while recalling that the real effort contributes to "modernizing the premises of the courts".