“Togas” on strike: lawyers and honorary magistrates protest

The Criminal Chambers are asking for a truly third-party and impartial judge and for a reform. Honorary Deputy Prosecutors are demanding decent pay

Two days of abstention from hearings for criminal lawyers. The Union of Criminal Chambers has launched a strike for 27 and 28 January. Numerous trials are at risk, both in Varese and in Busto Arsizio.

The Italian criminal chambers insist in particular on the separation of careers and the impartiality of the judge: "For thirty years, Italian criminal lawyers have been asking for the separation of careers between judges and public prosecutors - says the Union of Criminal Chambers - without submitting the public prosecutor to the executive: a measure of common sense which, finally, would lead the prosecution and defense to confront each other on equal terms in the trial before a judge who is truly equidistant from the parties and not part of the same "team" as his colleague prosecutor But that's not all: it is necessary to reform the CSM, which has become "a third chamber" of the state, to regulate the exercise of criminal prosecution without renouncing its obligation, to change the law governing the profession of lawyer by making access more rigorous and deontology, overcoming the problems of disqualification and finally introducing the lists of forensic specializations”.

From today and throughout the week, even the honorary magistrates are in turmoil, who with their work in the courtroom ensure that the processes go smoothly and the streamlining of the work of the professional magistrates.

Reason for abstention: low salaries, and the humiliation of continuously deferred payments: "Not only is the salary insufficient to meet the primary needs of life in a dignified way, but it is not even guaranteed - explains Federmot, the association that protects the category – Due to the depletion of funds, honorary magistrates in Rome have only received an advance on their fees, but unofficial voices announce that it is a national problem”.

In Varese, most monocratic trials are held in the courtroom by ordinary magistrates.