French judges aren't appointed. They train for the position....Meet Judge Hugo Rialland

ALENÇON, France ---Next week in the Tribunal in Alençon, a murder trial is scheduled (May 12-16.) 

This week (the week before), nothing was scheduled in the Cour d’Assizes (trial court.) 

France is divided into departments and Alençon and Caen have the two major courts in the Orne department. In Caen, there is the appeals court (cour d’appel.) See related article.

In the Orne, a department in France (in Normandy), serious trials are heard in Alençon. Convictions can be heard and overturned in the Cour D'Appel in Caen.

If I’d known about the murder trial, I might have tried to change my travel plans and unfortunately I have no information on the crime. I’ll see what I can do about that coming up.

If this accusé (accused) is convicted next week, the longest sentence he’ll likely get is 30 years. He may not get even that, Judge Hugo Rialland, vice president of the Tribunal in Alençon, said during a sit-down interview May 6. 

The accused (accusé) will be judged by a jury of nine people who’ll work with a panel of three judges to come to a decision. That part I find shocking, but only because it’s different that what occurs in the States.

“Each (judge) has one voice and the decision is taken by three people. We need to have an odd number to decide,” Rialland explained. “In France, we are not only great on the procedure, we make the decision on the background. We have more responsibility (than) in the American system to decide about lives of people.”

The judges and the jury might even sit down together and share a meal, Rialland said. It's allowed. The judges often worry about the emotional and psychological impact a trial can have on the jury. 

How do you become a judge in France? Judge Hugo Rialland explains.

Normally, criminal charges are filed by police, but individuals can appeal to a procureur (prosecutor) if they believe a crime has been committed.

A suspect can be held up to 24 hours by police for an intérrogatoire (interview) and that time can be extended by the police and the prosecutor to 48 hours. After that, a judge has to be involved and the suspect can be detained up to six months. That time can be renewed, Rialland said.

The European Commission, which has oversight over the European Union, has criticized France for holding people for too long, Rialland said, and courts have tried to move trials along more quickly.

Rialland has been a judge since 2004. He started out as a post-sentence judge working with parole, imprisonment issues and probation. Then he moved on to become a family judge overseeing divorce and custody cases. He was a criminal judge up until two years ago when he switched to the juvenile court.

The cases are heartbreaking, but there is hope, too.

“When you take care of children, they have an incredible capacity to get better. When you take care of adults, grownups - that was my job 20 last years- it’s more difficult to change the trajectory.They have fixed trouble and they can’t change it,” Rialland said.

Juvenile cases are referred to his office from the police, schools, parents and, sometimes, the child. Calls concerning the mistreatment or problems with children might come through a national hotline, 119.

First, there’s an investigation conducted by social services. Then reports are collected and the prosecutor could or might initiate a criminal investigation, Rialland said. If it’s a question of education issues, meaning the parents need to learn how to be parents, then the judge “organizes” a hearing.

As a juvenile judge, he interviews the child along with his assistant.

“I hear the child alone without anybody else, except my clerk and I can tell him my position, my job and I can hear from him what he identifies as difficulties in his life,” the judge said.

 Two cases he has right now - one involves a three- year-old he interviewed and the other, a 12- year-old, he said.

Then the judge sees or interviews the parents, sometimes with the child, and social services and possibly a parental attorney. (The parents need to be reassured, Rialland says.)

During that interview, everyone has the right to speak. And after that, Rialland, as the judge, makes his decision.

“It’s said that the words of the judge are very important for the family, for people. When it’s said by the state, by social services, it’s not the same, (as when it’s)  said by the judge,” Rialland said.

It’s up to the judge, for instance, to place children in foster care or back with the family. 

His philosophy is to try and change a child’s life before adulthood. “We have lots of people in prison who have psychiatric problems.” 

What puts people in prison in France, besides murder, rape, domestic violence, child molesting?

“Alcohol is a big problem. People commit violence. We have less (fewer) narcotic issues. A big problem is crack cocaine, because it’s still a powerful narcotic,” Rialland said. In the last two years, crack use has surged in Alençon.

Just like in England, the prisons are overcrowded. When he became a judge in 2004, there were 40,000 prison places for 60,000 prisoners; now France has 60,000 places and there are 80,000 prisoners.

Sometimes there are three to a cell, the same problem that exists in Allen County.

“The penitentiary trajectory has become more and more like America. We have more electronic monitoring, (and we try) to come up with different punishments, but we still have more people than 20 years ago,” Rialland said.

“Prison in France, not only (do) you put away somebody, we consider that prison is a time to reinforce, to solve some addictions, take care of psychological issues, to learn some work (skills), to pay damages (restitution), to prepare (someone) to return to society, but you can’t do that when you have too many people, when there are three in a cell and you don’t have enough social (services) people,” the judge said.”

Depending on where you live in France, those social services can be hard to get. Services are easier to access around the bigger cities. In the heart of Normandy, there are difficulties, primarily because of geography.

So how do you become a judge in France? 

You’re not appointed. You’re not elected. You train to become a judge and you have to be chosen out of a large pool of candidates who have finished law school. You take a qualifying test.

Only 300 are chosen each year for a 30-month training school for judges in Bordeaux, Rialland said, although some judicial specialities take place in Paris. Most of the candidates go to Bordeaux in southwestern France.

First, you have to become a lawyer. That takes five years from the ages of 18 to 23, so it’s a combined undergrad and law degree.

Once you are selected for this exclusive school and have gone through the 30-month training, there is another hoop - a year-long internship at a court.

Then you choose what kind of judge you want to be, although the choice doesn’t have to be permanent.

[I find it refreshing that the French keep politics out of judicial training, and anyway, there are way too many political parties over here which would make it complicated, non?]

It’s interesting that a judge can switch to become a prosecutor, however, that would take more training.

(Full interview with Judge Hugo Rialland will be posted.)