Judical Appointments Bill misses the point
12/09/05
A tremendous opportunity to change the way Scotland appoints senior legal counsel has been missed by the Scottish Executive?s latest legislative programme.
That?s the opinion of one of the country?s leading Solicitor Advocates, Frank Maguire of Thompsons Solicitors.
The Judicial Appointments & Removal (Scotland) Bill, one of the 19 bills announced by First Minister Jack McConnell, is being introduced to ?place the independent Judicial Appointments Board on a statutory basis.?
The introduction to the Bill says it will ?reinforce the Executive?s commitment to an open and fair selection system for the appointment to the office of Sheriff, Sheriff Principal and Judge at the Court of Session.?
According to Mr Maguire the fact the Bill will not legislate about the appointment of QC?s is a ?glaring opportunity missed? as most of the Judicial appointments come from the ranks of senior counsel and the method of choosing them is still shrouded in mystery.
Mr Maguire said: ?Earlier this year 14 new QC?s were appointed. They had all applied to the Lord Justice General and were then told some time later if they?d been successful or not. No one knows how that decision was reached. Applicants don?t know who has been consulted, what was said about them and they have no opportunity to reply to any comments made about them.
?Yet this new Bill wants a more open and transparent system for appointing Sheriffs and Judges while doing nothing about introducing some transparency into the selection and appointment of senior counsel.
?An independent observer was appointed to report on the process of choosing QCs to the First Minister this time round but as yet no-one else knows whether that report has been written or what was in it.
?I believe the Executive are right to tackle the hard questions of how to remove a Judge from office but they shouldn?t be afraid of the equally hard questions of how to take the system of appointing senior counsel from the sole control of Judges and make it more open and accountable.?
Mr Maguire is one of Scotland?s leading lawyers dealing with personal injury claims. Among the leading cases he is currently involved with he is petitioning the Court of Session for a Judicial Review of a decision by the Lord Advocate and the Health Minister not to hold a public inquiry into the deaths of three of his clients from Hepatitis C. All three became ill as a result of blood transfusions they received during treatment by the NHS.
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