Victoria: judicial officer reform in progress

In Victoria, the Courts Legislation Amendment (Judicial Officers) Bill 2013 (the bill) has passed the Legislative Assembly and has reached the second reading stage in the Legislative Council. The bill marks the second stage in the government's reserve judicial officer reforms, one of three initiatives aimed at improving the independence and flexibility of Victorian courts and tribunals.

Judicial Officer Reforms

Firstly, the bill develops the reserve judicial officer scheme introduced by the Courts Legislation Amendment (Reserve Judicial Officers) Act 2013 (VIC), which created the new offices of reserve judge and reserve magistrate. Created earlier this year, these new offices replaced the offices of acting judge and acting magistrate made by the Courts Legislation (Judicial Appointments and Other Amendments) Act in 2005 (VIC). The offices of acting judge and acting magistrate were intended to provide greater flexibility to deal with periods of higher demand in the court system; however, the regime was widely criticised for potentially interfering with independence and impartiality because people who had never been judicial officers were eligible for appointment.

The Courts Legislation Amendment (Reserve Judicial Officers) Act 2013 (VIC) addressed this issue by providing that only persons who have already held a judicial commission can be appointed to a temporary judicial office.

In addition to developing the Judicial Officer scheme, the bill implements other changes including:

• Increasing the maximum age of service as a reserve judicial officer from 75 years to 78 years to give courts greater opportunity to benefit from the expertise of a larger pool of former judges, associate judges and magistrates, especially where they have specialist knowledge and experience.
• Authorising a judicial officer to complete a matter that was part heard, but not finally disposed of, when the officer retired or resigned from judicial office, or when his or her engagement or appointment as a reserve judicial officer expired.
• Providing for the new offices of reserve associate judge and reserve coroner.

Part-Time Scheme

The bill's second initiative constructs a uniform scheme for part-time judicial service to facilitate the appointment and retention of judicial officers who have personal or family commitments, or might otherwise consider earlier retirement or resignation to improve their 'work/life balance'.

In addition to the current statutory and common law limitations on external offices and activities applying to all judicial officers, the bill specifies that a judicial officer undertaking part-time service may not, without the approval of the head of jurisdiction engage in activities inconsistent with their judicial office including conducting a business or profession, hold a paid directorship or related office, or engage in legal practice.

Salaries

The bill's third initiative is to arrange for the salaries of VCAT?s non-judicial members to be financed directly from the Consolidated Fund, strengthening the independence of VCAT by aligning the funding arrangements for the VCAT members? salaries with those for judicial salaries.

The Government's intention is for this bill to represent a major step in strengthening the independence of Victoria's judiciary and to vastly improve the capacity of Victoria's courts to meet the needs of the Victorian community.

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Bill and Explanatory Memorandum as reproduced in TimeBase LawOne