Good to revive appointment of lawyers as contract judges, says CJ

Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh says this will help to reduce the backlog of cases in the High Courts.

Chief Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said many lawyers would be willing to sacrifice two years to serve the country as judicial commissioners.

PUTRAJAYA:

 The practice of appointing highly specialised lawyers as judges on a contract basis could be revived to clear the High Courts’ backlog of cases, says Chief Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh.

The top judge said that some 50 years ago, senior lawyers like the late Raja Aziz Addruse were appointed as judicial commissioners for two years, after which they returned to practice.

“Those highly specialised, like in family and commercial law, were appointed. I think this is a good idea to explore,” he told reporters in an interview marking 100 days in office as head of the judiciary today.

Wan Farid said this in response to a question about overcoming the backlog of cases in major urban centres.

At an event in Penang last week, he said the judiciary was aware of the scale of the backlog.

Using courts in Johor Bahru as an example, he said judges handle about 800 cases at a time each rather than 200 to 250 cases, which would be considered normal.

Wan Farid said he knows many lawyers who would be willing to sacrifice two years of lucrative income to serve the country.

He pointed out that senior lawyers like Chan Hua Eng, S Jeyadeva, Abdullah A Rahman and RTS Khoo, who loaned their talents as JCs, had written sound judgments.

The system was later discontinued, and in the early 1990s, JCs were appointed with the prospect of confirmation as High Court judges.

On another matter, Wan Farid said judges who are unable to write out their judgments will be given a course in writing short grounds.

“We are not going to use the stick (penalise them) first. We will expose them to writing precise judgments so the appellate court does not need to spend more time reading lengthy grounds,” he said.

He said a judge’s work never ends, adding that “I myself work at home until the wee hours”.

According to a practice direction, judges must write their grounds within eight weeks after a notice of appeal is filed, but the deadline is often not met.

Wan Farid said disciplinary action could be instituted under the Judges’ Code of Ethics if judges fail to write their judgments promptly. - FMT