Diverse Group - Including State Bar and State Chamber - Pushing For Judicial Pay Raise From Georgia Legislature

(12/6/07) Here's a group you don't always see singing from the same page, or even from the same hymn book. But the Georgia Bar, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Republican Randy Evans and Democrat Sam Nunn are in agreement on this: judges in Georgia need a pay raise.

They've put their names to this letter to the editor, which has been sent to various publications. Here is the text:

For the past two years, U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts has warned us of the consequences of the ever-widening gap between the salaries of judges and those of lawyers in the private sector, as well as senior law school professors.

In his 2005 Year-End Report on the Judiciary, Chief Justice Roberts noted: “There will always be a substantial difference in pay between successful government and private-sector lawyers. But if that difference remains too large—as it is today—the judiciary will over time cease to be made up of a diverse group of the nation’s very best lawyers.”

And in his Year-End Report for 2006, the chief justice pointed to a growing trend among experienced judges who are retiring from the bench early, then moving to more financially lucrative work in the private sector – and away from the increasing demands, sacrifices and risks associated with judicial service.

At this point, you might be asking, so what? Why should it matter to me if a Superior Court judge is paid less than an entry-level associate, fresh out of law school, at a big Atlanta firm? How does it affect me if a Georgia attorney with less than 10 years’ experience is paid $20,000 more than a justice on our State Supreme Court?

The simple answer is as valid in public service as it is in the business world: you get what you pay for.

For more than 200 years, the constitutional rights of all Americans have been protected by our courts. A strong, highly qualified and independent judicial branch of government is critical to continuing this legacy bestowed on us by the Founding Fathers. Only by attracting and retaining the “best and brightest” legal minds to preside over our courts can we ensure the fair and impartial administration of justice and protection of our liberties.

And that matters greatly to all of us. While Chief Justice Roberts was writing from a national perspective, the situation in Georgia is even more serious.

In 2005, the State Bar of Georgia appointed a blue-ribbon Commission on Judicial Service primarily to examine this issue. Its members included lawyers, legislators, business leaders and academicians. During the next two years, they uncovered alarming evidence that Georgia’s judges are terribly underpaid by comparison to other lawyers with similar experience and expertise, and the gap is widening every year.

The Commission on Judicial Service recommended a 20 percent increase in salary for Superior Court and State Court of Appeals judges and State Supreme Court justices. During the 2007 session of the General Assembly, the House of Representatives passed a reduced version of this proposal, but it was not acted on by the state Senate.

There should be no argument that Georgia’s judges – at the local, circuit and state levels – are underpaid. As Chief Justice Roberts acknowledged, the top-performing lawyers in the private sector will always make more money than they would on the bench.

However, there is now empirical evidence that Georgia’s judges are terribly underpaid, with the situation continuing to worsen. To prevent weakening our courts in the future and the further erosion of public confidence in our justice system, judicial compensation must at least be competitive with opportunities that exist in private law firms and law school classrooms.

When our best judges cannot afford to provide for their families and send their children to college, they cannot afford public service. And we cannot afford for that to happen.

As you can tell from the signatures below, this is NOT a Republican vs. Democrat, or business vs. lawyer issue. It is a Georgia issue, and we Georgians have to act.

As the 2008 session approaches, we strongly urge our legislators to pass, and Governor Perdue to sign, the original version of House Bill 119.

Signing the letter were: Gerald Edenfield, president of the state Bar; former House Majority Leader Larry Walker (D-Perry), Georgia Chamber President George Israel III, state GOP general counsel Randy Evans and former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn.