Very Soon, Legal Executives are to be eligible to apply to become judges, as part of a programme of wide ranging changes designed to increase the diversity f the judiciary announced by the secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer.
In the future, Fellows with at least five years post-qualification experience will be bale to apply for salaried (full-time) and fee-paid (part-time) appointments to the District Bench (in county courts and magistrates’ courts) and in Tribunals.
Registered Patent Agents and Trade Mark Attorneys would be able to apply for salaried and fee-paid (part-time) appointments in the Patents Court, the county courts and Patents County Court and appropriate Tribunals.
Significantly, Legal Executives with appropriate experience, will be eligible for appointment as magistrates, disposing of criminal matters as well as family and other cases. At the moment, Legal Executive Advocates are limited to undertaking advocacy in civil and family proceedings in open court in county and magistrates’ courts, although an application to extend rights of audience in three areas (civil, family, and criminal proceedings) is being considered by the secretary of state.
Additionally, the measures mean that eligibility to apply will no longer be on the basis of the length of time a lawyer has had a “right of audience” to argue a case in court. Instead, applicants will need a specified number of years’ post-qualification legal experience – which is fewer than under the current requirements.
The number of years’ experience required for the judicial posts that will be open to Legal Executives will be reduced from seven years to only five years.
ILEX president, Sandra Barton, said she was “delighted” by what she described as the removal of “artificial barriers” to the judicial appointment system.
The new system will allow the best candidate for the job to be appointed, by focussing on the criteria for appointment and not the professional background of the candidate.
The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, stated it was critical that the judiciary was “reflective of the society it served, in order that the public might have full confidence in the justice system”.
He went on:”The eligibility changes will enable a wider range of people, with the appropriate skills and experience, to apply for judicial appointment. These proposals are about eligibility to apply for judicial office, which is of course separate from the question of appointment. Those who do apply will face a rigorous, competitive, competence based selection process. Appointments are made, and will continue to be made, solely on merit.
Lord Falconer said greater judicial diversity was “a priority” because it made a real and positive difference to the administration justice.
The established policy, that no-one may be appointed to salaried judicial office without first having served in a few-paid post, will remain in force. However the Lord Chancellor is to make a “limited exception” to the policy in the case of the barristers
and solicitors who are also justices of the Peace. They will be able to count their magistrates’ sittings in lieu of fee-paid service when they apply for a salaried judicial appointment.
The secretary of state for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor said other action to encourage greater diversity in the judiciary would follow. He went on: “I expect to make a further announcement in the autumn. I believe that these are important initiatives which, together, will make a real contribution to greater diversity in the judiciary, and will set a new and more flexible framework which will help the judicial appointments.
Commission form next year in widening the range of people who apply for judicial appointments.
