The judicial officers are subject to various duties and obligations :

Obligation to perform : in the framework of his monopolistic missions, the judicial officer must act whenever he is required to (except for legal exceptions).

Obligation to be available : the office of the judicial officer must be established at the place provided for in the Appointment Decree and must be available to the public at least three hours per working day.

Information obligation : towards his applicant as well as towards the debtor.

Obligation of independence : the judicial officer exercises his responsibilities autonomously, without feeling hampered by any link with the parties, their advisors or third parties.

Duty of impartiality : the judicial officer tries to preserve a balanced perspective as to the implications of his intervention without granting any advantage to one of the parties or to himself.

Obligation of mediation : the judicial officer acts as an intermediate between the applicant and the debtor. His independence and his impartiality imply that he is in an ideal position to be the intermediate who will try to find an efficient solution in the fairest possible way. In this regard, he shows listening, humanity and psychological analysis skills.

Duty of neutrality : the service provided by the judicial officer is objective, scientifically justified and free from prejudice.

Obligation of accuracy and precision : the judicial officer performs his duties in an exact and precise way in terms of both form and content and this, for all of his missions. In this regard, he sees to it that his office has all the human and material resources available needed for an efficient management of the files.

Precautionary principle : the judicial officer respects the precautionary principle and the principle of proportionality of a means in relation to the purpose for which it is used.

Reasonable time to perform : the judicial officer sees to the compliance with the reasonable time requirement to exercise his duties.

Obligation of dignity : the judicial officer shows dignity and integrity in the exercise of his duties. He must in particular adopt a behaviour inspiring confidence to the public and solely use his title in the framework of the exercise of his duties.

The Rates : the judicial officer must comply with the legal rates and with the fact these are a matter of public policy in the framework of his monopolistic missions. In the event the judicial officer’s intervention is not regulated by legal or paraprofessional rates (in the framework of his residual powers for example), the compensation for his intervention must comply with the principles of proportionality and fairness.

Obligation of discretion / professional secrecy : the judicial officer must comply with the professional secrecy regarding third parties (not towards his colleagues judicial officers or other legal professionals who are also subject to professional secrecy) and such, irrespective of the nature of the task he performs (article 458 of the Criminal Code). This obligation is also incumbent on the whole staff of his office.

The judicial officer is of course also subject to the duties following from the GDPR.