Facts
In this case, the Federal Tribunal admitted the public law appeal filed by lawyer V. against a judgment of the Cantonal Tribunal of the Canton of Fribourg, which had rejected his request for compensation for defending the interests of his court-appointed client in criminal proceedings.
The defendant P. had been convicted at first instance, and the Criminal Appeals Court of the Cantonal Tribunal had partially upheld the appeal. Lawyer V. had then submitted his list of costs for the two cantonal instances to the Cantonal Tribunal in order to determine his court-appointed lawyer's compensation. The Cantonal Tribunal had considered that when the defendant is not indigent, the Legal Aid Act does not apply to the remuneration of the necessary defense counsel, and that the financial claims of the latter against his client fall under private law.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal considered that the distinction made by the Cantonal Tribunal between the necessary defense, regulated by public law, and the remuneration of the court-appointed defense counsel, subject to private law, was purely artificial and had no objective basis. It found this interpretation to be arbitrary.
Indeed, the necessary defense constitutes a mission conferred by the State on a lawyer in favor of a defendant, with a compulsory character for…