Crime, betrayal and teens in danger: an investigation into a legal system on the verge of bankruptcy | M6 | Zone Interdite

How can you calmly try 67 criminal cases in one afternoon? And yet that is the daily case load of a court judge in Montpellier. As crime figures continue to rise, the French legal system is faced with an ever more shocking lack of resources: France is classed 37th of 43 European countries in terms of judges per inhabitant, behind Azerbaijan! How can justice be administered serenely, effectively and impartially under such conditions? This is what our crews set out to discover when they spent three months filming the daily lives of the courts in Montpellier, one of the ten most crime-ridden cities in France. Stabbings, riot, theft, aggression: that is the day to day experience of the 150 persons who run this huge machine dedicated to the law. From the least little traffic offence to the most serious of crimes, the 45 judges have no time for a minute’s rest. The marathon hearings follow one upon another in the five courtrooms, sometimes until midnight. For the first time ever, four of them have agreed to be followed every minute of their daily round. Crime scene reconstructions, morality lectures to the accused, sentencing minors to prison, but also budgetary restrictions that limit resources on an investigation. What goes through the minds of judges when they take decisions that will change of the life of someone else? And facing the magistrates we often find a public that doesn’t like them and is becoming less and less hesitant in telling them so and victims who expect greater resources to see justice done, like the family of Ghislain, a young 25 year-old who mysteriously disappeared in the scrubland after being violently assaulted. Inside the courtroom we follow the gripping trial of his two assailants. This documentary also enables us to assess a legal system on the verge of bankruptcy. In Montpellier, as in many French courts, the coffers are empty from November on and sometimes well before that!