LAWYERS are calling for a review of the criteria for new judges amid concerns about a lack of diversity on the bench.
Men currently represent more than 70 per cent of the judiciary, despite women making up half the workforce of the legal profession as a whole.
The Law Society wants more outreach work and mentoring in schools in a bid to promote the career choice to pupils and law students.
Rob Marrs, head of education at the Law Society, said that under current rules those who want to become a sheriff must have considerable court experience but this may be an "artificial barrier" to potential appointments.
He said: “In our view the relevant competencies for a judicial appointment are the ability to make good reasoned decisions within a reasonable time frame, knowledge of the law, knowledge of the rule of law and court procedure.
"These sit alongside the ability to deal with and understand those appearing before them and to be able to communicate complicated concepts in straightforward language – something which could become increasingly important if more people choose to represent themselves in court if they are unable to access legal aid.”
Mr Marrs said there had been "great strides" made in improving transparency in the appointments process.
“However it’s undeniable that there is currently a lack of diversity in our judiciary," he said.
“Our key recommendations include reviewing the existing criteria for judicial appointments and examining if there are unnecessary barriers which prevent potential candidates from applying.
"It’s important that as well as considering those recommended for appointment, we look at what can be done to broaden the pool of potential candidates."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel