f

15.

1

average

The system should aim tc .chieve a certain Judge-year. To attain the average more than the average number of Judge-days needs to be planned. Thus to attain an average of 205 each judge has to make himself available on about 220 days. 180-day average for Supreme Court Judges and 210 for District Judges would be regarded as reasonable in many countries.

16.

This Report canvasses the various impediments to improving the efficiency of the courts and tribunals and suggests means of overcoming them. It will be up to all those involved in the bidding process: the Judiciary Administrator, the various court and tribunal administrators and the presiders to see that those means or,

if they can do better, other means of their own devising are carried out. judges in charge of the various lists within courts will have information and opinions from which to formulate advice for the presiders and to guide the administrators. All are responsible and all should play their parts and play them within a system of collective co-ordinated responsibility.

The

Deputy Judges

17.

The daily lists show that the temporary elevation of judicial officers to higher courts as deputy judges is constant and widespread. Whilst it is useful to make appointments to meet particular needs it, is undesirable in practice to be wholly dependent on the large-scale, use of deputies. Both branches of the legal profession are critical and there is also a considerable body of complaint within the Judiciary itself. Litigants feel their cases should be tried by judges with the full status of the court of trial

that they have not brought their cases in that court to be tried by lesser judges. There are also complaints that work is unselectively assigned to deputies without sufficient regard to their experience or capabilities and conversely that being only deputies and less likely to protest they are sent work which would otherwise be difficult to place. These complaints bring the system into question and

question and indicate that

indicate that the policy should be

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