Judge warns ‘alarm bells’ ringing over vacancies on new appeals court

The president of the High Court has said he is "gravely apprehensive" that the proper administration of justice could suffer if the 10 vacancies on the new Court of Appeal are filled by High Court judges.

Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns has warned that "alarm bells" are ringing over the unprecedented need to appoint 10 new judges "in one fell swoop" over the coming months. If all 10 are drawn from the High Court, he says, 75 per cent of the 36 judges on the High Court will have less than three years' experience by the end of the year.

"Such a loss of expertise in the face of the challenges being addressed on a daily basis in the High Court would, if it occurs, be deeply worrying," he writes in the Law Society Gazette .

"I am gravely apprehensive that the proper administration of justice might well suffer in such circumstances. It would be akin to a surgical hospital losing most of its experienced specialists overnight, with all that that entails."

'Appropriate calibre'
High Court judge Seán Ryan has been named president designate of the Court of Appeal, which will sit between the Supreme Court and High Court and is expected to be up and running in the autumn. In his article, Mr Justice Kearns says it will be a challenge to fill the remaining nine vacancies with candidates of "appropriate calibre and ability."

He writes that he is not seeking to discourage High Court judges from applying for the positions. In an apparent signal to the Government, however, he adds: “All I can do is give expression to my wider long-term concerns and hope that others will ensure that the appointment process will be a careful and calibrated one that takes the needs and requirements for a well-qualified High Court into account.”

Suggesting ways to ease the losses to the High Court, he says it might be possible to extend, as a once-off transitional measure, the retirement age of judges this year by one or two years. This could provide one or two candidates and have the “incidental benefit” for the exchequer of deferring lump-sum retirement sums for that time.

A number of judges were expected to retire early at the end of the current legal term in order to benefit from a grace period before cuts are imposed on their pensions. But the Government’s decision last week to extend that deadline to June 2015 may persuade a number to hold on for another year.