Overworked Judges: The Lord Chancellor’s Response

A few weeks ago I wrote about delayed justice and late judgments which led to the sanctioning of judges: Justice Delayed: Judge Sanctioned for Late Judgment – Barry Baines

I attached the article to a request to Richard Drax MP to refer the questions in that article to the Lord Chancellor for his response.

Today a response from Lord Bellamy KC, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, who wrote that he was replying on behalf of the Lord Chancellor, was passed to me:

“I agree that it is in the interests of parties to cases and wider confidence in the justice system, for judgments to be delivered in a timely manner. I am confident that our world class judiciary works very hard to ensure cases are progressed and concluded expeditiously, including in handing down their final judgments.

“However, I should explain that how cases are distributed between judges and the support they are provided to manage their workload are matters for the independent judiciary. Therefore, it is not appropriate for me or the Lord Chancellor to comment on [the] three specific questions.”  Lord Bellamy adds at this stage the contact address for the Lady Chief Justice and suggests I may wish to take the matter up with her.  He then goes on:

“I can say that in relation to [the] general concerns about resourcing of the court system, the Lord Chancellor is committed to his general duty to ensure there is an efficient and effective system to support the business of courts and tribunals. For example, as part of his shared responsibilities for the administration of justice, in consultation with the Lady Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals, he determines the level of judicial resource required and MoJ has invested in recruitment programmes for around 1000 vacancies for judges and tribunal members annually since 2018.

“It is appropriate that there is a mechanism by which individuals can raise complaints about unreasonable delays in judgments. The Lord Chancellor shares responsibility with the Lady Chief Justice for decisions on sanctions for judicial misconduct which follow a careful and thorough investigation of the circumstances in each case.”

After almost 60 years of legal experience, I have no hesitation in endorsing the comment that we have a world-class judiciary which works very hard to ensure cases are concluded expeditiously, including handing down of final judgments.

But I feel a little disappointed that the Lord Chancellor, with the resources of the State at his disposal, distances himself from any responsibility for ensuring that judges are given adequate time and resources to deliver their judgments on time; central controls to monitor delays in producing judgments and the tools available to assist a judge who may be falling behind, and ways to help judges who may feel overwhelmed with their judicial work.

The welfare of judges may fall more squarely within the remit of the Lady Chief Justice, but if there are shared responsibilities for disciplining judges, there perhaps ought also to be shared responsibilities for supporting them in the wider aspects of their work.