The effects of managerial reorganisation on the referral of defendants to a summary court. A case study in Lille, 2000–2009

During the first part of the 2000’s, numerous managerial reforms impinged directly or indirectly on the French procedure of comparution immédiate (CI – summary trial). The competition between courts, a consequence of the development of performance indicators, had the effect of encouraging magistrates to adapt the organization of their court so that it would “perform” comparably to now “rival” courts. Beyond the effects on the organization of hearings, this resulted in the increasing of the probabilities for a defendant to face a comparution immédiate trial. In Lille, this new organization caused an increase in the probability of CI trials for foreign defendants as well as for those defendants with previous convictions.