The Judicial Office of the Kingdom (AJR)
The AJR was set up in 1928, under Dahir of 02/03/1953 reorganising its prerogatives. The AJR acts as legal council to the State, in charge of legally representing the State and its entities, be they claimants or defendants, in all cases not related to tax and public State.
To provide the AJR access to updated information relating to State and State entities debt, the legislator prescribed its calling for a case, on penalty of petition ineligibility in article 1 – last clause of the above mentioned Dahir.
The same prescription was taken up in article 514 of the civil proceedings code.
In addition, criminal action launched against magistrates, civil servants, agents or authority officers or public force officers, should be notified to the AJR, in conformity with article 2 – clause 4- of the criminal code. The conviction of any of State personnel for acts committed on active duty, confers the right to the prosecuting party to claim damages from the State; hence the necessity to ensure their defence before a criminal judge.
Further, any person civilly liable for disability or accidental death of civil servants or military officers is required, under laws regulating civil and military pension schemes, to notify the AJR of any legal action taken by the victim or their successors.
As the State is subrogated by the right of the victim or their successor to take legal action against the person civilly liable for the reimbursement of benefits paid, the AJR is responsible for forwarding the State claim in this matter, in conformity with article 28 dated 39/12/1971 on civil pensions, and with article 32 of law 30/12/1972 on military pensions.
Thus, the enforcement of legislative provisions mentioned above, entitles the AJR to attend all civil, administrative, commercial and criminal procedures with an outcome which may have financial repercussions on the State budget.
The AJR actions, both as claimant or defendant, relate to virtually all public administration activities, mainly:
- Proceedings for annulment of abuse of power formulated against administrative decisions before administrative tribunals and the supreme court;
- Government liability based on articles 79, 80, and 85 bis of DOC in all domains (medical, accidents caused by government vehicles not insured, school accidents, default in public work maintenance, security, requisition, assault, etc.);
- Corporate bodies' contractual liability under public law (conflicts associated with administrative and non-administrative contracts, mainly public tenders, lease contracts, social conflicts, enforcement of texts related to pension death benefits, indemnity, etc…);
- Actions initiated by AJR on behalf of administrations to claim a right (recourse to a third party liable, evacuation of a State house, etc.);
- Process notice of actions, presentation of complaints, defence of civil servants, etc.
In addition to these tasks, the AJR has other extra-judicial missions (disputed claims committee, procedures of friendly settlement of disputes, judicial studies, responding to queries from administrations, examining draft-projects and public bill proposals, etc.)
