Minister of Justice Annemie Turtelboom paid an official visit to our offices on Thursday the 10th of October 2013 to shed light on the new status of judicial officers for the press. The parliamentary committee for Justice approved the new status in the week of her visit.
The cornerstones of the new status are:
- the implementation of a comparative exam;
- the establishment of a heterogeneous appointment committee neutralizing and modernizing the appointment procedure;
- the establishment of heterogeneous disciplinary committees on the level of the Court of Appeal in order to transfer disciplinary jurisdiction from the districts. This implies that legal officers will no longer be judged by colleagues from the same district.
It is expected that the implementation of a comparative exam will open up the profession to young candidates, as we have seen among notaries.
Minister Turtelboom was given a tour of our offices to give her an insight into the profession today. The visit was aimed at demonstrating the social role of legal officers and the importance of IT in their daily work.
Finally, three young female trainees were asked about their motivation to become legal officers. All three of them believe that the new status and neutralization of the appointment procedure – to the position of candidate in their case – is a great step forward for the profession.