The Bar Association did not ultimately succeed in the so-called “fadettes” case. He had sued the State judicial agent before the first civil chamber of the Paris judicial court and requested € 50,000 in compensation for a malfunction in the public service of justice. In a decision issued Wednesday, the court ruled that the state had not committed “gross negligence”.
Between 2014 and 2019, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had peeled detailed invoices (“fadettes”) from tenors of the bar – including Eric Dupond-Moretti – to identify who could have informed former President Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog that they were wiretapped in connection with a corruption case. This investigation for breach of professional secrecy was closed in December 2019. But in its conclusions issued in September 2020, the General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ) highlighted a number of irregularities in this procedure. It is in this context that the Order decided to take legal action in December 2020.
No “manifest illegality”
The court considered that the interference in the private life of the lawyers concerned and of their interlocutors was not disproportionate to the objective pursued. He underlines in particular that the telephone investigations only covered a “very short period”; that they were in conformity with the European law of the time as regards the use of “fadettes”; that investigators did not wiretap lawyers.
“There was no manifest illegality and therefore no gross negligence” on the part of the public prosecutor, reacted the state lawyer, Me Bernard Grelon, welcoming a judgment which gives “entirely satisfaction”.
Eric Dupond-Moretti had filed a complaint
During the hearing on October 6, Me Frédérique Baulieu had argued, on behalf of the Bar Association, that there was “a serious breach caused to the professional secrecy of lawyers, to their reputation and their image”. “There were serious dysfunctions of the public service of justice”, she had pleaded.
The tenor of the bar Eric Dupond-Moretti, who is one of the lawyers concerned, had announced to file a complaint for invasion of privacy. He withdrew her on the evening of his appointment as Minister of Justice, July 6, 2020.