Internet puts judges in firing line of disgruntled dads

Who'd be a judge? Far from being the privileged and rarefied profession of popular opinion, it seems that the judiciary is becoming a victim of its own modernisation.Family judges, who now have their home addresses posted on the Internet, have become the targets of 'mobs of unhappy fathers who haven't seen their children for months or years' (The Guardian, 13 February).These disgruntled dads, who hold family judges responsible for their lack of access to their children, not only 'picket the judges at weekends', but even resort to hate mail, with one family judge receiving a 'very unpleasant anonymous card sent to my London home with a skull and crossbones on it, reminding me of how many children I'd orphaned'.

The origin of the anger - the fact that 40% of children of separated parents lose touch with the non-resident parent within two years of separation - is being tackled with a report, Making Contact Work (see [2002] Gazette, 14 February, 5) which 'looks comprehensively at a system acknowledged to be failing both children and parents'.It has not been a good week for the judiciary, with the new lay commissioner of judicial appointments, Sir Colin Campbell, attacking the 'unacceptable' delays faced by wannabe judges in waiting to hear the outcome of their applications (The Times, 12 February).

One potential judge had to wait a year before being told that he had not got the job.Sir Colin further admitted that 'it is widely perceived that the system is secret and not transparent', with another judge telling him that 'I'm part of the system and even I don't understand it'.

The problem with the system is, apparently, that 'the selection procedure was designed for a time when the legal profession, now 100,000 strong, was small and everyone knew everyone else'.However, all was not bad news for the judiciary's public image, with proposals put to the Lord Chancellor's Department last week 'to widen the pool of candidates to the judiciary by allowing lawyers in the Crown Prosecution Service to apply' (The Times, 12 February).

The suggestion, made by the Attorney-General Peter Goldsmith and the Solicitor-General Harriet Harman, would mean that 'judges in England and Wales would be drawn from a far wider and more socially diverse pool of candidates than the private legal profession'.The 'fossilised' criminal justice system was also in the spotlight, with the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir David Phillips, launching an 'exasperated attack' on the system for 'failing the police and the public' (The Times, 16 February).Juries are 'not hearing the whole truth', Sir David said, calling for 'defendants' spent convictions to be outlined to juries in cases of repeat offending'.

He also indulged in a spot of lawyer bashing, attacking 'well-practised defence lawyers who will use their knowledge of the system to threaten our intelligence and sufficiently muddy the waters so that...

the case gets withdrawn or thrown out'.The City was the next source of gloomy news, with The Times reporting 'substantial pay cuts' at top practices as 'the downturn in investment banking finally catches up with London's law firms' (18 February).

Norton Rose is 'looking at a 10% reduction in turnover' this year following a 'decline in the number of flotations, mergers and acquisitions', and so will be slashing its senior partners' draws by 'at least 70,000'.

Eversheds also admitted that 'large corporate deals have been slower given the economic climate', and so lawyers 'are unlikely to receive a distribution of the firm's profits for the last quarter'.And finally, cupid's arrow certainly seems to have hit David Bell, a 'trainee lawyer' from Watford.

Mr Bell, 24 - who wisely stayed silent over where he works - attended the charmingly named 'Desperate and Dateless' Valentine's ball in London last week and was spotted by The Independent 'dirty dancing with a human resources assistant from Watford' who was 'clearly wearing no underwear' (18 February).

Our knicker-challenged heroine considered Mr Bell to be 'absolutely fantastic', while he in return was smitten by his 'amazingly fit' partner.

Should anyone decide to look into the impact this could have on the profession's image, we are sure they will find, erm, nothing there.Victoria MacCallum