Recorder

Nicholas Mostyn QC has been appointed  a High Court judge in the Family Division. He will replace Mr Justice Bennett, who is retiring. Mostyn was Called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1980 and took Silk in 1997. He was appointed a Recorder in 2000 and sat as a deputy High Court judge. 

What do candidates sitting the Crown Court Recordership Competition think of the qualifying tests? How to you assess whether someone will be a good Recorder? How do you conduct the first cull in a process where there have been 1,000 applicants for only 128 positions?  

The Judicial Appointments Commission (“JAC”), facing this problem, has since 2008 required candidates in the Crown Court recordership competition to sit a test in which he or she gives their decisions and reasons in respect of various matters which arise in a trial in which they apply a given, fictional body of law. 

Counsel intends to publish an article about the Recorder Selection Exercise Qualifying Tests which have been used by the Judicial Appointments Commission since 2008. It is intended to include in the article anonymous case studies from participants. We are interested
in hearing from those who have sat these tests about their experiences and their general feedback as candidates. Any information given will
be treated as confidential; names and addresses will not be published. 

Please contact the Editor, Jane Maynard. Email: jane. maynard@lexisnexis.co.uk 

David Wurtzel meets Sue Carr QC, Chairman of the Complaints Committee of the Bar Standards Board, and discovers how the new complaints procedure is working in practice 

Part-time Recorders are not entitled to judicial pensions, the Court of Appeal has held.