I was disappointed with David Kirwan’s letter, which appears to have been written from ‘the hip’ and without any research into the subject.

Although we come from very different backgrounds, Mr Kirwan and I have been employed in the legal profession for about the same time. Having qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives about 30 years ago, I went on to train as a family mediator and became one of the first legal executive members of the Law Society’s family law panel.

My qualifications, training and experience meant I was eligible to apply for the post of deputy district judge. However, that was only the start of the selection process.

Had Mr Kirwan taken the opportunity to look at the Judicial Appointments Commission’s selection policy he would have seen that candidates are selected for judicial office on merit, through fair and open competition from the widest range of eligible candidates. For more information on the subject, I would suggest that Mr Kirwan visits the JAC website, where he will find not only the JAC policy statement, but also full details of the kind of competition that I took part in, which resulted in a recommendation to the Ministry of Justice for appointment.

Mr Kirwan should also take account of the fact that, while the role of the JAC is to select and recommend candidates, it does not appoint them. The lord chancellor can accept or reject any such recommendation.

Finally, it is widely accepted that the current selection system offers the public greater assurance of the standards of excellence of those appointed than does the old system of a ‘tap on the shoulder’.

Ian Ashley-Smith , deputy district judge, Hastings, East Sussex