The Council of State rejected on Monday an appeal from the bars of Marseille and Paris who asked the state to provide lawyers with protective equipment against the coronavirus, especially during police custody and immediate appearance hearings.
The highest administrative court did not find any "deficiency bringing a serious and manifestly illegal infringement of fundamental freedoms".
Rules "adapted to limit contact"
In its decision consulted by AFP, the Council of State puts forward that "the rules of the civil procedure and the criminal procedure were adapted to limit, as much as possible, the contacts between the people". He mentions in particular the possibility of holding hearings remotely or in camera.
The Marseille Bar Association and that of Paris requested "to systematically put masks and hydroalcoholic gel available to lawyers and litigants" during police custody interviews, immediate appearance hearings and more generally "in all the circumstances of the operation of the public service of justice ”.
A welcomed decision
Despite the rejection of the request, the Paris bar welcomed the decision of the Council of State. "It is wrong to the government which affirmed that exercising a liberal profession, the lawyers did not have anything to expect from the State to ensure their health protection", estimated the bar in a press release.
The administrative court notes that "faced with a context of persistent shortage of available masks", the State must first "equip its agents", the magistrates and the clerks, with protective equipment.
But it also says that it is up to the State "to assist lawyers who, as auxiliaries of justice, contribute to the public service of justice, to obtain" protective equipment, "by facilitating the 'access to bars and institutions representative of the profession to supply circuits'.
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