Wigs on the way out
Published:Sunday | October 23, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
There is a big move afoot for judges in the Court of Appeal to change their attire and, in the next few weeks, they will be sitting bareheaded on the bench.
President of the Court of Appeal Seymour Panton said several months ago that its judges took the decision to get rid of the wigs in that court.
But not only wigs will go. The judges are now in the process of finalising new robes for the Court of Appeal.
"The wigs will definitely be going within a matter of weeks, and that is before the end of the year, for sure," Justice Panton said last week.
It was reported last week that judges in the Irish Republic are soon to sit in court without wigs, in an effort to save money.
On being asked if the wearing of the wigs was being discontinued because they were expensive, Justice Panton replied, "Definitely not!" and gave the following reason.
"We are now approaching 50 years of Independence. There are certain vestiges that have to go."
He said the wigs were totally unnecessary for the performance of their duties and should have been done away with a long time ago.
Questioned about the colour of the new robe, he said, "My personal view is that I want a robe which has more national significance on it, and there must be something designed with the flag in mind." He said it was not that the gown was going to be black, green and gold, but insisted that there must be some depiction of the national colours. He said there will be consultation among the judges on the robe design.
Space concerns
Although legislation has approved an increase in the complement of judges in the Court of Appeal from seven to 10, appointments cannot be made because of lack of space in the court building.
Justice Panton is urging the Government to quickly expand the building. He said plans were drawn for the expansion, architectural plans done, and a contract awarded. He hopes that the building will be completed next year so additional judges can be appointed.
When asked if the panels will be increased, Justice Panton said, "My plan is to continue to have two panels so that judges will get time out of court to write judgments, so we will be able to dispose of matters at a faster rate. As it is now, we have a situation where judges have been sitting day after day without sufficient time to write judgments. When we have more judges, we will be able to do proper rotation."
The Court of Appeal sometimes sits in the afternoons, but Justice Panton said additional judges would obviate the need for extra hours.
Justice Panton dismissed queries about whether there was a backlog in that court.
"We have a few cases that judgments need to be written at the moment, but I would not term it that we have a backlog," he said.
Justice Panton said there was urgent need to get additional judges, because they were under considerable pressure to get the work done. The judges have so far been cooperative, and work night and day, weekends and public holidays to get the job done, he added.