Court of Appeal of England and Wales - Judges

Judges

The Court of Appeal's main judges are the Lords Justices of Appeal. The Senior Courts Act 1981 provides that the Court of Appeal comprise 38 ordinary sitting Lords Justices and the Lord Chief Justice, Master of the Rolls, President of the Queen's Bench Division, President of the Family Division, and Chancellor of the High Court. Retired Lords Justices sometimes sit in cases, as have retired Law Lords, and High Court judges are allowed to sit on occasion. Lords Justices have, since 1946, been drawn exclusively from the High Court of Justice; prior to this, Lords Justices were (rarely) recruited directly from the Bar. The division of work in the Court of Appeal is demonstrated by the 2005 statistics, in which Lords Justices sat 66% of the time, High Court Judges 26% of the time and Circuit and Deputy High Court Judges 8 per cent of the time. Lord Justices are currently paid £188,900, with the Master of the Rolls paid £205,700 and the Lord Chief Justice £230,400.

The Civil Division is led by the Master of the Rolls, currently Lord Dyson, who uses the postnominal MR; the Chancellor of the High Court and President of the Family Division regularly, for a period of weeks, lead the Civil Division. Several Civil Division Lords Justices are seconded to the Criminal Division, which is led by the Lord Chief Justice, currently Lord Judge.