Scotland’s Lord President, Lord Hamilton now publishes his & judicial colleagues expenses online. EXPENSES CLAIMS of Scotland’s Court of Session judges, Sheriffs & Part-Time or Temporary Sheriffs have now been published on the Judiciary of Scotland’s website, after Freedom of Information requests earlier this year first revealed on Diary of Injustice, the true, if at times, staggering expenses claims of members of Scotland’s judiciary where Scotland’s 34 Court of Session judges were revealed to have claimed £78,988 in expenses on top of their already huge salaries ranging from a mere £172,753.00 for ‘outer house judges’ to the Lord President’s staggering £214,165.00, making a a collective annual salary of just over £6.1 million for the 34 Senators of the College of Justice as they are known, to keep the painfully slow wheels of Scots justice rolling & the Court of Session in business.
Quarterly figures now published by the judiciary itself reveal the extent of judges expenses claims. Figures now published by the Judiciary of Scotland website reveal the highs & lows in expenses claims of Scotland’s Court of Session judges, with Lord Kinclaven making the highest claim for travel & subsistence in the last available financial quarter at £3,656.40, closely followed by Lord Uist who claimed £3,011.72, Lord Woolman who claimed £2,217.78, Lord Pentland who claimed £1941.38 and Lady Clark of Calton who claimed £1,613.25, although all these judges are assigned ‘circuit duties’, meaning they sit in various courts throughout Scotland. The Lord President, Lord Hamilton himself claimed £259.90 while Lord Gill, the Lord Justice Clerk claimed £118.60. Several Court of Session judges claimed nothing at all in travel & subsistence, leaving the total expenses claimed by the 34 Court of Session judges at £15,945.99 from 1st April to 30 September 2010, full details available here : Senators of the Court of Session (pdf)
Full time Sheriffs expenses claims finally revealed. Among the Sheriffs, examples of expenses claims range from £4,503.50 for Sheriff R Anderson QC (who sits at ‘remote’ courts), £4,633.02 for Sheriff DO Sutherland, £3,719.01 for Sheriff AD Miller (floating Sheriff & formerly a part time Sheriff), £4,433.30 for Sheriff A Berry (floating Sheriff), and £3,411.51 for Sheriff Principal Sir ST Young Bt QC, to Sheriff MGR Edington, who claimed nothing, Sheriff Edington being one of the few, fine honest lawyers during his time in legal practice I’ve known, also not forgetting Sheriff Principal R A Dunlop QC, who claimed £752.60. The now Sheriff Dunlop was my Senior Advocate for my negligence case against crooked Borders lawyer Andrew Penman of Stormonth Darling Solicitors, Kelso. However, Alistair Dunlop QC as he was then was made a Sheriff the next week and conveniently taken away from my legal team, such is the fairness in the Scottish justice system no other Advocate could be found to take the case.
Many other Sheriffs claimed little or nothing at all, the full details of their expenses claims, which total £7,760.99 for the period 1st April to 30 September 2010 can be found here : Sheriffs Principal and Sheriffs (pdf)
Part-Time Sheriff who was involved in years-long tennis-playing crooked lawyer case, claimed £2,350.55 in expenses this year. A very much higher set of expenses claims are made by the Part-Time Sheriffs, who beat full time Sheriffs & the Court of Session judges by a long way with examples of claims ranging from £6,738.80 for Sheriff G Fleetwood, £5,048.25 for Sheriff DW Hall, £7,624.97 for Sheriff PGL Hammond, £4,252.35 for Sheriff EG Savage, £4,124.30 for Sheriff D McCaffrey, £4,854.98 for Sheriff V Johnston to £2,350.55 for Sheriff PA Reid who ‘prosecuted’ the tennis playing crooked lawyer Michael G Robson on behalf of the Law Society and decided to leave out my testimony for fear of giving me a fair hearing. You can read more about the Michael Robson case, here : Revelations in Court of Session appeal show Law Society & Fiscal deliberately failed to take witness affidavit and excluded crucial evidence
Some Part-Time Sheriffs claimed nothing, although not many. The full details of Part-Time Sheriffs expenses claims, which totalled a whopping £126,399.69 for the same period 1st April to 30 September 2010 can be found here : Part-time judicial office holders (pdf)
Judiciary for Scotland website published judicial expenses after FOI requests revealed cost of Scottish judiciary. The decision by the Judicial Office to publish expenses claims of Scotland’s judicial office holders comes after my earlier investigations into the expenses claims of Scotland’s judiciary, reported in August : The costs of Scotland's 'Victorian' Justice System : Court of Session judges paid £6.1 million as litigants struggle to obtain hearing dates & here : Justice Delayed ? Not when it comes to expenses claims as high earning Scots judges rake in at least £78K in ‘travel’ claims
The Scottish Government, responding to an initial Freedom of Information request in August of this year from Diary of Injustice on expenses claims by the judiciary stated : ”The total Travel & Subsistence claims from Scotland’s 34 Senators of the College of Justice for the financial year 2009-10 was £78,988 of which, £16,299 was for Inner House judges, and the remaining £62,689 was for Outer House. The Scottish Government said the only other expenses they would record in the accounts are the Wig & Gown allowance, a one-off payment when a new judge is appointed. It transpired no such payments were made during 2009-10”
However, The Scottish Government admitted in FOI responses there were no details held of the individual expenses claims for judges on a central database as the accounts system only recorded the totals charged against headings such as Travel and Subsistence. The new policy of publication of all judicial office holder’s expenses claims in Scotland brings transparency in expenses into line with England & Wales, details of which can be viewed on the English Judiciary’s website, here : Judicial Expenses for England & Wales
Scottish Government FOI release of Judicial Office holder’s expenses claims earlier this year. The figures released by the Scottish Government in September in response to a Freedom of Information request revealed while a Sheriff receives an annual salary of around £128,296 per annum, Scotland’s Sheriffs collectively claimed a further £176,431.37 in expenses in the last financial year 2009/2010, while part time sheriffs who are paid a daily fee of around £575 for each day of service claimed an additional much larger figure of £281,085.07 in expenses. The figures also reveal earlier & current expenses claims of £106,367.09 & £77,259.31 respectively for Scotland’s Court of Session judges (Senators) on salaries ranging from £172,753.00 to the Lord President’s staggering £214,165.00.
Will the increased transparency by way of publishing the judiciary’s expenses claims bring savings to the public purse ? We will just have to wait & see .. and monitor.
However, if anyone from the Judiciary of Scotland website is reading this, I would recommend publishing the expenses claims in normal web available html format as well as in pdf, to ensure taxpayers, constituents & court users can more easily check on how much the judiciary are costing us. Who knows, perhaps one day we may even see performance tables showing, for instance, how long cases take before Sheriffs, along with the decisions handed down etc
More information relating to how the judiciary conducts itself, along with recommendations for more transparency can be found at the following links :
The Report of the Scottish Civil Courts Review by the Lord Justice Clerk, the Rt Hon Lord Gill launched in September 2009 gives recommendations in relation to the provision of civil justice, including the structure, jurisdiction, and procedures of the courts.
The Independent Review of Sheriff and Jury Procedure by Sheriff Principal Bowen, published in June 2010 reviews sheriff and jury practice and procedure in Scotland with the aim of ensuring that the system is fair, efficient, modern and effective.
A Statement of Principles of Judicial Ethics for the Scottish Judiciary published April 2010 offers guidance and a framework of principles for members of the Scottish judiciary. More information and the full Statement can be found here.
24 comments:
Considering how long people wait to get into court I'd say this is a few million pounds wasted!
Good idea about the performance tables - lets see just how these sheriffs are doing their job!
This is another feather in your cap Peter, not only do your FOI's result in the judiciary revealing their expenses, they feel sufficiently pressured by campaigners to establish their own online presence.
While the latter innovation should be welcomed it is difficult to see how Judges resident in or around Edinburgh, who only sit in the Court of Session, might require the amounts of travelling expenses claimed.
However the mind boggles at the amounts charged by Part-Time Sheriffs, and it looks as if it is high time a cap was set in these times of austerity. After all we are supposed to all be 'in it together'.
These expenses claims sound way over the top considering what they get as a salary!
Hmmm no wonder they refused to publish this until now.
How many of these judges are worth all that money?
Lets hear from people who are in their courts for an appraisal of their costly performance!
Your blog cheers me up Peter, giving these people a sore time.
If we had performance related pay for judicial people, perhaps they would earn a lot less due to the courts being clogged with cases. Lord Hamilton does not have £60.00 a week to buy food, pay utilities etc so he does not know what life is like for millions of people. Never mind Arthur old boy, just do what MP's do and claim for utilities on your expenses. It is shocking that omnipotent people have had their activities protected for so long. Accountability Arthur, people like you must be accountable to the public. Great report Peter.
Another example of those who traditionally self police, now under public scrutiny due to pressure groups. Long live dissent.
Self regulation underpins corruption and it must be eradicated because it undermines justice.
No holder of an LLB will have to turn to dissent for the court doors to open for them. You know I am correct don't your Arthur Hamilton.
http://latestnews.virginmedia.com/news/uk/2010/12/14/convicted_judge_storms_out_of_court
4 December 2010 01:51pm
A judge swore and stormed out of court when she was convicted of failing to control her dangerous dog.
Judge Beatrice Bolton, of Rothbury, Northumberland, strode out when the verdict was announced, branding the decision "a f****** travesty".
Bolton, 57, was found guilty by a judge sitting at Carlisle Magistrates' Court of allowing her pet German Shepherd to bite 20-year-old Frederick Becker, her neighbour. She was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay £275 compensation to the victim, plus £930 court costs and a £15 surcharge.
District Judge Gerald Chalk said the case had been proved, adding: "We take the view that this is a case which does justify a financial penalty. Mr Becker was not only put in fear but was actually injured by the dog in question." GOOD MAN JUDGE CHALK.
Bolton, who was asked by the court usher during the two-day-trial to stop chewing gum, NOT VERY PROFESSIONAL BOLTON had denied a single charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
She was labelled "the neighbour from Hell" by Mr Becker's parents David and Anne Malia.
The Malias and Bolton lived in adjoining properties and had been friends for years, but their relationship soured over the rights to the homes' shared back gardens and the behaviour of Bolton's dog - an animal the family claimed they were living "in terror" of.
A spokesman for the Judicial Office for England and Wales said the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor would be considering Bolton's position as a judge.
Speaking outside the court, Judge Bolton said: "I'm absolutely devastated by this conviction. I have always sought to do what was right in relation to my neighbours and was very conscious of my public position and tried very hard for it not to be said that I was abusing such a position."
Asked whether she regretted her foul-mouthed outburst in court, she said: "This has been a terrible, terrible strain on me which I have tried to bear for the sake of my family, but everyone has their limit at which they cannot control themself. I above all else would never disrespect a court."
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A terrible strain, Beatrice try fighting a Self Regulating legal establishment protected by the Law Society of Scotland. You do not know what stress is.
wonder what the sheriffs think of their salaries now for all to see online?
I've been looking through the lists for Sheriff Kenneth Pritchard (ex boss of the Law Society) but hes not there.Is he out or retired?
One of the things which came out of the Westminster expenses scandal was MPs were unofficially told they could fatten their salaries via expenses.Given the huge difference in claims between the judges,full-time & part-time sheriffs do you think the same is happening with the part-time sheriffs?
"However, Alistair Dunlop QC as he was then was made a Sheriff the next week and conveniently taken away from my legal team, such is the fairness in the Scottish justice system no other Advocate could be found to take the case. "
There is no fairness in the Scottish justice system when it comes to crooked lawyers.
I'm beginning to wonder if Penman had a list of paedophiles in high places for them to stoop to taking away your advocate.Shocking although not unexpected given the Law Society's obvious hatred of you.
Let me guess - judges expenses claims are yet another issue for Scots newspapers to avoid on orders from the legal establishment ?
We've had everyone else's claims aired in public - some of them for years yet not a peep about the courts.It looks awfully obvious someone doesn't want the public knowing!
I think whats more worrying is the actual numbers of judges + sheriffs in those lists yet the courts are still so slow and crooks get off with everything!
Anonymous said...
Let me guess - judges expenses claims are yet another issue for Scots newspapers to avoid on orders from the legal establishment ?
We've had everyone else's claims aired in public - some of them for years yet not a peep about the courts.It looks awfully obvious someone doesn't want the public knowing!
14 December 2010 20:12
All Scottish newspapers have lawyers and all those lawyers are members of the Law Society who phone home when a scandal is about to be headlined.
Little surprise there are more stories these days about fluffy bunnies than crooked lawyers and expenses claiming judges.
Best wishes from the nightdesk :)
Lord Hamilton,
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
But self regulation is not right it is tyranny. The judiciary have to realise that the self regulation is on the way out. Your profession by their own corrupt ways have ignited the fight for justice and it will never be extinguished.
Victory to the dissidents.
I did not know the Law Society owned the press. Hush hush.
Interesting comments.
Given all these sheriffs/judges were lawyers at one time shouldn't we know exactly what they did during that time?
I mean they are bound to have had complaints against them right? and if there were complaints swept under the carpet maybe this should all come out now along with their expenses?
"The Independent Review of Sheriff and Jury Procedure by Sheriff Principal Bowen, published in June 2010 reviews sheriff and jury practice and procedure in Scotland with the aim of ensuring that the system is fair, efficient, modern and effective. "
An independent review of sheriffs by a sheriff! How independent is that!
Yes and while the nhs & hospitals are cut to the bone this lot can claim what they want.
DISGUSTING
Given all these sheriffs/judges were lawyers at one time shouldn't we know exactly what they did during that time?
I mean they are bound to have had complaints against them right? and if there were complaints swept under the carpet maybe this should all come out now along with their expenses?
Excellent point - Yes we should be able to find out what they got up to as lawyers and exactly why they end up as a judge!
Yes I also agree sheriff's expenses are published.
At the end of the day its public money and these people are getting paid to do a job therefore every penny must be accountable along with their records of service and backgrounds.
I read in the papers this week lawyers are having income problems - so at least the recession brings some good news for a change!
An excellent expose of the judiciary Mr Cherbi which I am 100% sure should be read by anyone who finds themselves in front of any of these characters.
Well done!
Personally I think the subject of the costs of the judiciary on Scotland has been one of your best of the year.
Looking forward to seeing more in 2011.Keep up the good work!
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