Following the bill presented this week before Parliament, the lawyers of the Alpes-Maritimes will show their dissatisfaction in front of the courthouses of the department.
Tomorrow throughout France, the courthouses will be the scene of significant protests and strikes.
The courthouses of Alpes-Maritimes, Grasse, and Nice will not deviate from these events. Indeed, a strike and a demonstration are planned tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Grasse and at 1:30 p.m. in Nice by the lawyers of the Alpes-Maritimes bar associations.
The reason? The men in black robes are denouncing a bill examined in Parliament on Tuesday and Thursday: the suspension of professional secrecy. The bill called “Trust in the Judicial Institution” was initially intended to strengthen professional secrecy, particularly in criminal matters, a democratic principle established at the end of 1971.
However, after a review of this bill, a breach of professional secrecy is possible in the name of the fight against tax fraud. The new bill to be examined provides that professional secrecy could be set aside in favor of the investigation. When a lawyer is presumed to participate in an offense – even unknowingly -, the public prosecutor will have the possibility to search their file for any information they want. A practice deemed “scandalous, which undermines the principle” and could lead to a long national strike.
