UK Law Articles
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The Times
September 7 1999
More judges needed for rights challenges
BY FRANCES GIBB, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT
THE biggest expansion in the number of High Court judges for a decade is being planned for this autumn, to cope with an expected surge in human rights challenges in the courts.
The Lord Chancellor intends to seek Parliament's approval to expand the High Court bench. At least six new judges are to be appointed, above the present ceiling of 98.
Lord Irvine of Lairg's plan, disclosed in an interview with The Times, anticipates a deluge of cases challenging decisions by authorities spanning everything from education to social services under the Human Rights Act of 1998.
The move may fuel calls for a review of the working conditions of High Court judges to make the job more attractive.
The judges are drawn from the circuit bench or, more often, directly from the Bar, in which case they often have to take a massive pay cut in accepting the £123,787 salary.
While the top-earning QCs in the commercial sphere give up £500,000 a year, in return they obtain job security, an index-linked pension and a knighthood.
However, candidates regularly decline an offer of immediate apppointment: in 1997 three were sounded out and all declined.
About six new judges will be sought initially, but more may be needed to cope with challenges under the Human Rights Act.
High Court judges are appointed rarely: the average is one a year. But the 1998 Act enables people to challenge decisions by authorities covering crime, education, health, social services, planning and the environment: the High Court judges will take the brunt of the complex cases.
Lord Irvine said: "There is no doubt at all that the Human Rights Act is going to have a very significant impact on the House of Lords, Court of Appeal and the Crown Office list - on all areas of the criminal justice system, on family business and the immigration appellate authority." He saw no need for an increase in judges in the House of Lords or Court of Appeal. But there would have to be "a number of new appointments at the High Court level".
Lord Irvine made clear that he would not be sitting as a law lord on human rights cases. He has already had to stand down in one case involving prisoners' rights. But he would continue sitting on commercial cases, although he accepts that challenges might be made to his sitting as a law lord.
"My position is the same as the position as every one of my predecessors across the whole of this century, which is that the Lord Chancellor should emphatically continue to sit."
Lord Irvine announced a new special board within his department, made up of officials and judges, to determine judicial needs under the Act and to ensure that the department's legislation, policy and procedures comply with the Human Rights Act.
Solicitors working at the sharp end of the law are earning just a fraction of the six-figure sums disclosed last week in City law firms, the Law Society said yesterday.
While partners in commercial law firms are poised to break the £1 million-a-year pay barrier, their high-street counterparts, particularly those doing legal aid work, are earning less than £30,000 a year.
The Law Society said that legal services were contributing £791 million a year to the UK's invisible earnings.
