For many junior lawyers, the first hearing, the first criminal file and the first client who did not choose you all arrive through a bar duty rota. Police custody, immediate appearance, juvenile cases: these assignments, handed out by the bar, are demanding, but they give you practice very quickly.
This article explains how duty rotas and court appointments (commissions d’office) work, how to sign up, what you meet there, how legal aid pays for these assignments, how to combine them with an associate position and, finally, how to show them on a CV. Precise rules vary from one bar to another: always check those of your own bar association.
How the bar’s duty rotas work
When a person has not chosen a lawyer, or the lawyer they chose cannot act, the bâtonnier (the head of the bar) appoints one. This ex officio appointment, also called a commission d’office, rests on article 25 of the law of 10 July 1991, and the Conseil national des barreaux 🔗 (CNB, the national bar council) reminds readers that it falls within the bâtonnier’s own prerogatives.
To answer at any hour, bars organise duty rotas: lists of on-call lawyers, kept up to date with a calendar, that the police, the court registry or the prosecutor’s office can reach through the bar. Entering or removing a lawyer from these lists is solely the bâtonnier’s decision. Depending on the bar, taking part is compulsory for everyone or voluntary. In large cities, rotas are organised by subject (criminal defence, juveniles, immigration law); in small bars, a single rota often covers everything.
Once appointed, the lawyer keeps full independence in running the defence. They are bound to accept appointments and commissions, unless there is a legitimate excuse or impediment accepted by the authority that made the appointment.
Signing up: training and conditions
There is no single national procedure. As an example, the Paris bar sets out on its website the conditions for joining the criminal defence office 🔗: completing the “Criminal defence” course of the lawyers’ school, an online application, a day of tutoring validated by a delegate of the bâtonnier, signing a charter, being up to date with continuing training and contributions, and access to the lawyers’ private virtual network. Another bar will ask for less, or more.
A few habits for a junior lawyer:
- Ask your bar as soon as you are sworn in, or even during your final internship: some bars offer training from the lawyers’ school onwards.
- Ask for tutoring or a partner with an experienced colleague for your first duty. The Paris bar, for instance, requires it.
- Prepare your kit: gown, up-to-date codes, templates for requests for investigative measures, useful registry and prosecutor’s office numbers, a phone charger.
To see where these courses fit in your career path, read our article on how the lawyers’ school unfolds.
Police custody, immediate appearance, juveniles: what to expect
Police custody
This is the most common duty. When the person in custody has no lawyer, or their lawyer cannot come, the judicial police officer contacts the bâtonnier, who has the duty lawyer appointed. The law of 22 April 2024 abolished the two-hour waiting period: as the CNB 🔗 sums it up, an interview may in principle not start without the lawyer. In practice, you are called by night as well as by day, you talk with the client, read the documents made available, attend the interviews and make observations.
Immediate appearance
The file arrives fast, sometimes a few hours before the hearing. You have to read a procedure, meet the defendant, decide with them whether to accept being tried that same day, then plead before the criminal court. It is a school of speed and synthesis: you learn to spot in a few minutes the procedural defects, the weak points of the prosecution and the personal circumstances useful at sentencing.
Juveniles
Juvenile duties call for other reflexes: dealing with the family, knowing the procedure that applies to minors and its courts, working with educational services. The training requirement there is often higher: ask your bar.
Other duties
Depending on the bar, other rotas exist, for example in immigration law or in child-protection matters. Service-public 🔗 also mentions court appointment before the criminal court, the assize court or in child-protection proceedings.
Legal aid and how it pays
These assignments are most often paid under legal aid (aide juridictionnelle, AJ). The principle: the State covers all or part of the lawyer’s fees depending on the rate granted, and the sum is paid to the professional, never directly to the beneficiary. Service-public 🔗 reminds readers that, even with legal aid, a lawyer is not free of charge: they are paid by the State.
Two useful points:
- Guaranteed legal aid. When a lawyer is appointed ex officio and the client is ultimately not admitted to legal aid, the so-called “AJ garantie” mechanism allows the lawyer to be paid if they actually carried out the assignment. The CNB specifies that the sworn statement must be properly completed, failing which no payment is made.
- Payment procedures. They depend on the bar: filing a request with the legal aid office, an end-of-assignment certificate issued by the court registry, payment by the Carpa. The Paris bar describes its own payment chain; find out about your bar’s from your first assignment.
The amounts are set by regulation and revised; we do not reproduce them here, so as not to give you an outdated figure. Simply remember that these assignments are paid at a flat rate, far from the fees of a private client. They are therefore first valued as an investment in experience. To compare this pay with that of an associate position, see our article on the associate’s fee retrocession.
Combining duty rotas and an associate position
Duties fall at unpredictable times, which raises a concrete question for a self-employed associate: who accepts that you are absent on a hearing afternoon, or woken at night for a custody case?
- Raise the subject before signing. The liberal collaboration contract can provide for time spent on training, public-interest assignments and building a personal clientele. It is better to write participation in duty rotas into it than to negotiate it on the first night on duty.
- Warn your firm as soon as the calendar is published. Dates are communicated in advance: tell your supervising partner, and arrange with a colleague to cover current files.
- Keep some margin the next day. A night in police custody cannot be prepared, but the 9 a.m. hearing the next morning can.
- Measure what the firm gains. Some firms, notably criminal law firms, see the duty rota as a source of files and visibility. In others it is tolerated without being encouraged: it is not the same collaboration atmosphere.
Showing this experience on your CV
A recruiter at a criminal defence firm, but also in litigation, appreciates what these assignments prove: the ability to take over a file with no preparation, to speak to a client in an emergency, to plead alone. But a bare “criminal duty rotas” says nothing. You must quantify and situate.
Before: “Took part in the bar’s criminal duty rotas.”
After: “Police custody and immediate appearance duties at the [city] bar (since being sworn in): client interviews, attendance at interviews, pleading before the criminal court.”
A few rules:
- Put the section where it carries weight. For a junior lawyer, the line goes under professional experience, below the firm, or in a separate “[City] bar” section if duty rotas make up a large share of your activity.
- Respect professional secrecy. Cite no name and no recognisable case: describe types of proceedings, not files (see our article on cases cited in a lawyer’s CV).
- Do not claim a title you do not have. Regularly working in criminal law is not a specialisation mention recognised by the CNB: write “practises criminal law” or “acts in criminal defence”, and read our article on the specialisation mention before using any title.
- Tailor it to the target job. For a first associate position in corporate law, stress speed, rigour and ease in oral work rather than the detail of the offences.
For layout, our criminal lawyer CV example shows how to order these assignments, and our article on the criminal lawyer CV details the useful sections. The CV builder handles the layout for you and produces a PDF that applicant-tracking software reads correctly, which avoids a badly structured CV being discarded before a human reads it.
Frequently asked questions
Are duty rotas compulsory for a junior lawyer?
It depends on the bar. According to the CNB, in some bars all lawyers must take part in duty rotas and court appointments, while in others they are voluntary. The bâtonnier alone is competent to draw up the lists: ask your bar.
Can you refuse a court appointment?
A lawyer is bound to accept appointments and commissions, unless there is a legitimate excuse or impediment accepted by the authority that made the appointment. The conscience clause is among the accepted grounds for being relieved.
Are these assignments paid?
They are generally paid under legal aid, paid directly to the lawyer. In some cases, the guaranteed legal aid mechanism allows payment even if the client is ultimately not admitted to aid. The amounts and procedures depend on the texts in force and on your bar.
Can you do them without being a criminal lawyer?
Yes: you do not become a criminal lawyer by doing duty rotas, and you can take part without a criminal-law career plan. Many junior lawyers mainly find in them a practice of the courtroom that their firm does not yet offer. However, do not present it as a specialisation mention on your CV: only one awarded under the CNB’s rules is one.
Sources
- Conseil national des barreaux, Frequently asked questions - Legal aid 🔗
- Conseil national des barreaux, Police custody: wider rights and abolition of the waiting period 🔗
- Service-public.gouv.fr, Legal aid in proceedings in France 🔗
- Paris bar, Court appointments: how to sign up 🔗