Daily Business Review
April 22, 2010
By: Jose Pagliery
Judiciary: State may fund study on judges’ pay
Sen. Victor Crist responding to tough lobbying by Florida’s judicial branch, state legislators will soon be asked to consider funding a study to determine whether judges are paid enough.
Judges and lawyers have expressed concern over judicial salary reductions and court budget cuts, as well as a bill that would shrink pensions for state employees including judges.
Circuit judge salaries are set at $142,178 — a figure seen by many as an insufficient incentive to draw qualified candidates from private practice. Junior associates at large law firms often make more money than state judges.
Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, who chairs the Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Committee, called Tuesday for a commission to produce recommendations by Dec. 15.
If added to a bill and passed before the end of the legislative session next week, the Florida Supreme Court would be asked to appoint a commission to study judicial recruitment and retention.
“In order to ensure the highest levels of knowledge, experience and expertise, it is important to take a look at what kind of job we’re doing in attracting these kinds of people and what are we doing to retaining them,” Crist said in an interview Wednesday.
“It’s good, reasonable, prudent business practice to self assess from time to time to ensure that you have the very best qualities in place,” he said.
Web Extra: Sen. Crist memo | Interview with Sen. Crist
Lawyers, judges and experts would make up the proposed commission.
The measure was welcomed by Miami-Dade Chief Circuit Judge Joel Brown, who met with legislators in Tallahassee on Wednesday to discuss a bill that could vastly reduce state employee pensions.
Brown said he didn’t tell legislators not to pass the bill but said he focused his comments on the impact on the courts of reducing judicial pensions.
In an e-mail Wednesday, Brown predicted Crist’s proposed study would show “the adverse effects on the recruitment and retention of judges in the event of changes to the pension and compensation plans.”
Florida Bar President Jesse Diner, who also championed the salary study, said it likely would reveal judges are underpaid.
“If someone is willing to go on the bench, they ought to be adequately compensated,” said the Atkinson Diner Stone Mankuta & Ploucha partner. “Now the question is what is adequate compensation?”
In the past, Diner has accused lawmakers of inadequately funding the state judicial system and treating it as a department instead of a third and equal branch of government.
Budget cuts to state courts in 2007 and 2008 caused layoffs. Those cutbacks coupled with a sharp increase in foreclosure filings have slowed courts statewide.
Judges are handling more cases than ever, and Diner said it’s about time they got paid competitive salaries to go along with the workload.
Whether state judges’ salaries are competitive is a question Crist hopes the commission will tackle as well, comparing compensation, recruitment and retention rates in other states.
Some answers can be found in a 2008 judicial salary study conducted by the National Center for State Courts, a Williamsburg, Virginia-based nonprofit research firm.
Florida ranked 13th nationwide in pay for general jurisdiction trial court judges. The ranking, which accounts for cost of living, placed Florida far above most nearby states and the equally populous state of New York, which ranked 45th.
Florida trial judges in 2008, the latest year available, got paid slightly more than those in Alabama, who made $134,943, and Louisiana, which pays its judges $124,085.
Only Georgia was slightly higher at $144,752. Those figures, however, do not reflect cost of living.
Those who support increased funding for Florida’s judicial system note the state’s judge-to-population ratio of 4.5 judges per 100,000 people is far below the national average of 7.3 per 100,000.
Jose Pagliery can be reached at (305) 347-6648
