A bill guaranteeing a lawyer to all children placed or protected as part of an educational assistance procedure was definitively adopted by Parliament on Wednesday July 1. This measure is due to come into force in January 2027.
The text was unanimously adopted by the National Assembly on second reading, in the same terms as the Senate at the end of May. He echoed in the hemicycle the drama of the teenager Louis, beaten to death in Narbonne at the end of June, and who was a child placed in a child welfare home (ASE).
With a cost estimated at around 300 million euros, the measure was supported by the Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin, who however underlined the “challenge of organizing the courts” that it represents.
“We have six months to put ourselves in battle order, to ensure that this law, tomorrow, changes the lives of children in care,” declared socialist MP Ayda Hadizadeh, who carried the text. Until now, “too often”, these children “have felt alone in the corridors of justice”. “They did not feel sufficiently protected and their rights not sufficiently respected,” she insisted.
Presence of a lawyer required
Currently, the majority of young people concerned by educational assistance measures – placed in foster families or homes, or followed directly with their family by decision of a judge – are not assisted by a lawyer in this process, which is nevertheless decisive.
The idea is therefore to make it compulsory for a lawyer to be present at each hearing before the children’s judge. The latter will also be able to “prepare” the child in advance and “explain the measure” to them afterwards, thus becoming their “reference person”, the MP explained to the press on Tuesday. The lawyer will be free for the child, paid by the State via legal aid, without means test.
The text, which will apply regardless of age, including for infants, was supported by the associations. “Until now, a placed child could find himself alone in front of the judge, alone in front of the ASE, alone in the face of decisions that affect his entire life. Tomorrow he will have to be assisted. Defended. Understood,” Lyes Louffok, activist for the rights of placed children, said on X.
🔥 VICTOIRE 🔥
The National Assembly definitively adopted the law making the assistance of a lawyer compulsory for each child placed in the ASE.
Whatever his age.⁰Whatever the measure.
In a home, with a host family, or accompanied at home.
It’s HISTORICAL! pic.twitter.com/KmfDZ6w5By
— Lyes Louffok (@LyesLouffok) July 1, 2026
I manage my choices I authorize
Awareness
The text will concern the 100,000 new educational assistance measures pronounced by magistrates each year, and the 260,000 already in progress, indicated Gérald Darmanin. The Minister of Justice has warned of the difficulties in implementing such a provision, which, according to him, also makes France a “pioneer” country.
During the hearings, “if the lawyer does not appear, the placement measure cannot be ordered by the judge”, and a child could then be sent back to potentially abusive parents, he warned. “So we have a huge organizational question. » To prepare for this entry into force, a compromise was finally found to postpone it until January 6, 2027.
The text was adopted at a time when numerous news stories involving children have shocked public opinion in recent months. “Our society is gradually discovering the extent and seriousness of violence against children,” underlined MP Arnaud Bonnet (environmental group).
The tragedies of the death of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old schoolgirl, and of Louis, have also lifted the veil on what the text seeks to combat, said MoDem MP Perrine Goulet: “The lack of consideration at the right level of the child’s words. »
“Louis is a child welfare child and he was lynched by other child welfare children,” recalled Ayda Hadizadeh. Before his death, he had gone to “file a complaint” alone, without a lawyer, she stressed.
The right of each placed or protected child to benefit from a lawyer was also part of a “comprehensive” bill against sexual violence against women and children, which Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu wants to see reworked before an examination in the fall. A bill on the protection of children has also been examined by a special committee in the National Assembly since Tuesday.
