by Frank James
It's not easy being a federal judge.
They're typically accomplished lawyers who could make much more money in private practice.
Now comes word that the group of federal judges who oversee the federal judiciary's administration known as the Judicial Conference of the U.S. have decided that, to save money, semi-retired judges or "senior trial judges" will share courtrooms.
(The conference had earlier decided to cut space for judges' chambers and clerks and the like.)
But because these are lawyers we're talking about, they made sure to stick in an important qualifier. The new policy will only apply to senior judges working in brand new courthouses.
Other changes the judges made today probably won't please many court employees. The judges moved forward on rejiggering the organizational chart for court employees and how those workers will be evaluated, all in order to reduce overall compensation costs.
This presumably will apply to workers in both new and older courthouses.
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Comments
This is an outrage. It's not that I am outraged at the federal judiciary. Far from it. I am outraged at Congress for being so miserly when it comes to funding and staffing the federal court system. There are numerous vacancies on the federal bench because the Democrats have stonewalled Duh'bya's appointments. In addition, Congress throws the judicial branch table scraps when proper funding would take only a fraction of money allocated for pork projects. And then people wonder why it takes years and years for cases to wend their way through the court system. Sheesh.
Posted by: John W. | September 16, 2008 4:46 PM