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Lawyer threatens to overwhelm justice system with internet appeals for drivers

FRANCE: Website will challenge driving convictions for as little as four euros
From Hugh Schofield in Paris

A MAVERICK lawyer who styles himself the motorists' defender has vowed to bring the French justice system to its knees via a groundbreaking website that automatically challenges radar-generated speeding convictions.

After just one month in operation, the site - http://www.direct-avocat.com - already has 120,000 subscribers, who for a maximum fee of just 8 (roughly £7) have been helped to file legal objections against fines or the deduction of licence points.

For Yannick Rio, who devised the software with the help of an American car users' association, the aim is to flood the courts with so many appeals that they are unable to cope. Under the French penal code, the punishments will lapse if the challenges are unanswered after a year.
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Rio says he is providing an outlet for the growing anger in France at the proliferation of radars and other controls, and at the undiscriminating manner with which the state uses them to collect hundreds of millions of euros every year.

"France is now the most repressive country in Europe when it comes to traffic offences," he says from his offices in Paris's expensive 16th arrondissement.

"But the weak point is the legal system. In order to save money, the government is closing down local courts and reducing the number of judges. This means it is becoming harder for the citizen to exercise his basic right to challenge a conviction.

"So what we are doing is merely playing the state's own game. They want to have remote justice, exercised by computers and radars. Well, we will give automatic, internet-generated appeals.

"If just 1% of those given fines or point deductions files a challenge, then the whole system will implode," he says.

Visitors to Rio's site are taken through a number of questionnaires - the equivalent, he says, of a fully fledged legal consultation - and their information is processed into the form of an official letter of appeal.

Signed via a scan or other piece of internet software, the letter is then sent by registered email to the relevant local court - which the website will also automatically find.

The service costs 4 if the challenge is to a simple fine, and 8 to fight a loss of points. By contrast, hiring a lawyer to argue a case in court would cost up to 1500 (£1350).

France dramatically changed its policy on traffic offences seven years ago, when then-president Jacques Chirac made it a priority to reduce the country's horrific level of road deaths. Since the introduction of radars in 2003, the number of people killed on the roads has almost halved to around 4500 a year.

However, motorists' groups criticise the arbitrary way in which punishments are inflicted. Fines are automatically incurred for an excess of speed of just a few km per hour, and drivers have their licences confiscated if they lose all 12 points. With three or four points deducted for a regular speed offence, this happens regularly.

According to official figures, 9.5 million points were removed and 90,000 driving permits were annulled in 2007 alone. The same year saw seven million speeding tickets from the country's 2000 radars, raising some 500 million for the state treasury.

"Of course, I am not against road safety, but it is the role of any good lawyer to find breaches in the law and exploit them.

"Many ordinary people have lost their jobs because they no longer have a driving licence - I am simply giving them a way to fight back," Rio says.

However, his initiative has received rather less than wholehearted backing from the rest of the legal profession, many of whom regard Rio as a media-savvy shyster. The profession's governing body is currently investigating if his website is even legal.

Under French law, lawyers are forbidden to tout for paid work or to act as intermediaries between citizens and the justice system. Rio retorts that the money he receives from the website is in the form of copyright payments for having helped devise its software.

"The monopoly enjoyed for so long by the legal profession is not just against European directives, it is also a major obstacle to free competition. For me, the law is a market like any other - and there is no reason it should not be practised on the internet. It's up to lawyers to adapt," Rio says.

He promises more web-based legal services in the months ahead, including the chance for a low-cost, consultation-free divorce.

France is now the most repressive country in Europe when it comes to traffic offences

But the weak point is the legal system. In order to save money, the government is closing down local courts and reducing the number of judges. This means it is becoming harder for the citizen to exercise his basic right to challenge a conviction.