Archive for category Judges
Judge Recruitment
The Guardian published a special report today about the Lord Chancellor, 
Lord Falconer, and the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, attempts to recruit more women, ethnic minoritiy and solicitor judges to make the judiciary more representative of the general population, because, the article says, the judiciary is overwhelmingly white, middle-aged and male. The article can be read here.
This is all very well, but there has been an extremely significant omission in this “drive”. It doesn’t include disabled and Deaf people. What does this indicate? Do Lord Falconer and Lord Woolf not think that disabled/Deaf people are up to the job? Are we that easy to ignore or forget about?
Attitudes like this only serve to remind us that disabled and Deaf lawyers have a long way to go before we are recognised as equals by the law profession. Perhaps this is the attitude that makes it difficult for Deaf people to make inroads in the profession, both on an academic and professional level.
Equal Treatment Book
The Judicial Studies Board (JSB) launched an Equal Treatment Book on 12 May 2004. The aim of this is to provide a resource for all full-time and part-time judges on how to ensure equal treatment is given for all users of the judiciary system, including those with disabilities. It can be downloaded here.
“I think it is very important to realise that although this is called a bench book, because it is something which you have on the bench beside you when you are acting as a judge, it is a guide. It is not prescribing how a judge must behave but it is giving guidance to the judge so that he or she can take that into account when they come to do their judging.”
This is a Bench Book for all judges, in all courts and tribunals, both those who are new to the role and those with considerable experience.
Lord Chief Justice
The disability section (Chapter 5) gives an overview of the various types of disability and how to be politically correct, and also explains the various terminology and gives some brief guides on disability etiquette. The part on deaf and hard of hearing people is more or less accurate, even going as far as to say:
Hard of hearing (deaf)
There are three main groups of hearing-impaired people, who can collectively be referred to by the term deaf. The capital ?D? in ?Deaf? refers to people whose first language is sign, and who define themselves as members of the Deaf community. The lowercase ?d? refers to all other deaf people who have usually acquired a hearing
impairment post-lingually, and who use a mix of communication forms. Deaf/blind
people constitute a third group. Deafness affects people in many different ways, ranging
from a relatively small amount of hearing loss to complete loss of hearing. It also affects
the extent to which people can use their voices and may result in speech which is difficult
to follow. It leads to an emotional state of social isolation. Deaf people may be blunter or
more demonstrative than hearing people and demonstrative gestures should not be
misinterpreted as over-theatrical or as signs of rudeness. Background noise is very
stressful for a person who is hard of hearing.